(no subject)
I may get up to a 'year in review' post eventually, and have been meaning to do up another "how does my voice sound these days" video, but I'll be honest, I'm tired, and in a relatively bad mood, what with the start of the semester and my love leaving again and a bunch of things going on that I don't have time or energy to pay attention to...
So this will have to do, for now, and I have to say, it's a fairly accurate indicator of the type of year 2012 was for me.
I was rushing off to my first class today, head full of lecture-prep and running behind on time, and a random colleague I passed said, "Oh, hey, congratulations!"
It is a testament to the type of year I have had that it took me a few minutes to think, "For what?" I just said, "Hey, thank you!" and walked on by.
I have had people congratulate me for a variety of things over the past year. Most prominently, of course, was my engagement to a beautiful and fabulous woman. Also congratulatory-worthy, according to at least some groups of friends of mine, was the beginning of testosterone, my official name change, getting the gender marker changed on my license and passport, getting that ovary yanked, chairing a committee with the American Philosophical Association, and, a 2013 event but still noteworthy, joining the board of officers of a local trans group (I'm secretary). And some other stuff too, I'm sure. It's been a year full of congratulations. Some massive landmarks have been passed by me in '12. It has taken an awful lot of hard in many cases, an awful lot of work in other cases, and hence, I am exhausted and sometimes feel rather overwhelmed, but it has all been worth it.
In fact, a few months ago I ran into a friend I see only occasionally, but who follows my facebook (and I his), and he had seen a recent update and said "Oh, hey, congratulations!" for which I thanked him. And he followed up by saying "It seems as though every time I see you, I have something to congratulate you for."
So I tend to say "thank you" quite automatically, these days, and work out the "congrats for what?" later. When my colleague congratulated me, my mind did this: "ok, colleague is not on my facebook page, thus is unlikely to have seen my engagement announcement, and that's been a couple of months anyway ... he's not a trans/ally-friend, thus it's probably not about the ovary yank on December 12 or the secretary of the trans-group thing ... hmm. What could it be? OH RIGHT! I also had a book come out on Dec. 19th. Heh, finishing touches on that while recovering from abdominal surgery, because that's the way we roll. I wonder if my boss has announced my book publicly?"
Yep, that was it. The chair of the humanities department sent out an announcement to the rest of the department, congratulating me on my book. I returned from classes to a slew of in-person and on-line congrats from colleagues.
It was nice.
I can't believe I've had such a year that I've more or less forgotten about the publication of my first book -- my debut onto amazon.com, for god's sake -- except to view it as essentially One More Thing Off My Endless To-Do List.
It has been a landmark year. May 2013 be, well, full of good things, but not so many HARD things, if ya know what I mean.
So this will have to do, for now, and I have to say, it's a fairly accurate indicator of the type of year 2012 was for me.
I was rushing off to my first class today, head full of lecture-prep and running behind on time, and a random colleague I passed said, "Oh, hey, congratulations!"
It is a testament to the type of year I have had that it took me a few minutes to think, "For what?" I just said, "Hey, thank you!" and walked on by.
I have had people congratulate me for a variety of things over the past year. Most prominently, of course, was my engagement to a beautiful and fabulous woman. Also congratulatory-worthy, according to at least some groups of friends of mine, was the beginning of testosterone, my official name change, getting the gender marker changed on my license and passport, getting that ovary yanked, chairing a committee with the American Philosophical Association, and, a 2013 event but still noteworthy, joining the board of officers of a local trans group (I'm secretary). And some other stuff too, I'm sure. It's been a year full of congratulations. Some massive landmarks have been passed by me in '12. It has taken an awful lot of hard in many cases, an awful lot of work in other cases, and hence, I am exhausted and sometimes feel rather overwhelmed, but it has all been worth it.
In fact, a few months ago I ran into a friend I see only occasionally, but who follows my facebook (and I his), and he had seen a recent update and said "Oh, hey, congratulations!" for which I thanked him. And he followed up by saying "It seems as though every time I see you, I have something to congratulate you for."
So I tend to say "thank you" quite automatically, these days, and work out the "congrats for what?" later. When my colleague congratulated me, my mind did this: "ok, colleague is not on my facebook page, thus is unlikely to have seen my engagement announcement, and that's been a couple of months anyway ... he's not a trans/ally-friend, thus it's probably not about the ovary yank on December 12 or the secretary of the trans-group thing ... hmm. What could it be? OH RIGHT! I also had a book come out on Dec. 19th. Heh, finishing touches on that while recovering from abdominal surgery, because that's the way we roll. I wonder if my boss has announced my book publicly?"
Yep, that was it. The chair of the humanities department sent out an announcement to the rest of the department, congratulating me on my book. I returned from classes to a slew of in-person and on-line congrats from colleagues.
It was nice.
I can't believe I've had such a year that I've more or less forgotten about the publication of my first book -- my debut onto amazon.com, for god's sake -- except to view it as essentially One More Thing Off My Endless To-Do List.
It has been a landmark year. May 2013 be, well, full of good things, but not so many HARD things, if ya know what I mean.