Fair moon, to thee I sing
The big fat moon in the sky tonight reminds me that I haven't updated this here thing since before the last full moon I saw, in a very different sky on the other side of the world. Partially, I guess I was sort of thinking that I get out of updating about what's been going on since I've actually seen a solid majority (I believe) of the people reading this in the time since I last posted, so of all the times to post now didn't seem to be a particularly important one. But given that things have been happening since I got back, and since I do want to keep a record of the wonderfulness that was being back in the US and seeing all of you, I feel I should write something before this moon and month slip into the next.
So, things that have happened:
I went home! As you know if you did see me and possibly even if you didn't, I was in Los Angeles for the last week of 2009 then went to the HRSFA Winter Party. Both places were absolutely incredible. Los Angeles still is home, and I was glad to spend time with the parents and the brother (and the puppy, naturally) and to do all the eating that is mandatory when I visit. And I'm glad to still have a community in LA to return to, both among the people who are still there to live and those who were visiting as I was.
And then there was the Party! Much, much gratitude for everyone involved in putting it together - ophblekuwufu, you are totally My Hero. If LA is my home in one sense, then HRSFA is just as much or more my home in a different sense. I am astounded at the fact that I can be away for two and a half years and come back to find that it still feels as natural as if I'd only been away for a day. HRSFA is, at bottom, where I fit, and the party was a wonderful reminder of that. To everyone who was there: believe me when I say that I've missed you all, both individually and as a group, over the last two years, and seeing you again gave me great joy. (And for those of you who weren't there, such as some certain Minnesotans, you were missed as well, and I hope to see you at the next one!) And that's even without getting into the stuff that HAPPENED at the party, including the hilarious LARP, all the various games, Milk and Cookies, the epic mafia game of epicness (khyros, I'm sorry! I never seriously considered that one of the mafia may have died in the night, and boojum42 was clearly innocent!), and all of the awesomeness that went on... I will do my absolute best to come next year as well, and as it looks like I may have to come to the US at some point this year for an interview anyway, maybe I'll try for the July party as well if I can swing it. No promises on that score, though.
After the amazingness of vacation, I won't pretend that I wasn't a little sad to come back to Beijing and back to work. But I've gotten back on my feet pretty quickly. I've been keeping busy, in a good way - lots going on at work, including some interesting things, and lots of hanging out and other stuff with friends when not at work. Oh, there've been some storms (such as when I yelled at my roommate's younger sister, who was staying with us, for eating some pear muffins I'd baked without asking me first, and my roommate yelled at me for speaking in "that tone" to her sister and almost threatened to throw me out of the apartment) and some utterly bizarre things (such as when we discovered that the discrepancies that kept popping up between a word document we wanted to turn into a pretty pdf and the pdf itself were due to the fact that the designer's e-mail server was censoring out the names of certain schools - e.g., "Carnegie Mellon University" - and even countries - e.g., "Philippines" or even "China"; pastwatcher, if you were asking what the strangest thing that's happened to me at work was, it's that), but in general life's been progressing pretty smoothly.
And spring finally seems to be upon us. The temperature here has gotten much warmer in the past few weeks - odd, since Beijing usually doesn't start to warm up until after the lunar New Year, but I'm certainly not complaining. I was even able to eat a Taiwanese shaved ice today without wanting to die too much. And things seem to be heading toward resolutions or fresh starts in other ways. A weirdness in my contract situation (don't ask) may be finally fixed as early as March, and I may even get a small raise out of it, which would be quite welcome. And for the long term, as mentioned above, I'm not sure if I actually want that thing I'll be interviewing for in the US, but I'm excited to get the interview and would seriously consider it if the interview goes well. And for that last thing... we'll see, I guess - it looks like there's a resolution coming one way or the other, at least.
Perfect timing, too, with the New Year upon us shortly. And because my workplace is cool (or maybe just because it's weird), we have an annual three-week vacation for the holiday! I will be in Beijing for the first week, until Spring Festival itself, then will head to Wuhan in central China to explore Hubei and Hunan provinces for the last two weeks. I have very little idea what my itinerary will be, where I'll be staying (though I've reserved a hostel for the first two nights), or even how I'm getting back to Beijing, but I expect I'll survive. Whee!
So, things that have happened:
I went home! As you know if you did see me and possibly even if you didn't, I was in Los Angeles for the last week of 2009 then went to the HRSFA Winter Party. Both places were absolutely incredible. Los Angeles still is home, and I was glad to spend time with the parents and the brother (and the puppy, naturally) and to do all the eating that is mandatory when I visit. And I'm glad to still have a community in LA to return to, both among the people who are still there to live and those who were visiting as I was.
And then there was the Party! Much, much gratitude for everyone involved in putting it together - ophblekuwufu, you are totally My Hero. If LA is my home in one sense, then HRSFA is just as much or more my home in a different sense. I am astounded at the fact that I can be away for two and a half years and come back to find that it still feels as natural as if I'd only been away for a day. HRSFA is, at bottom, where I fit, and the party was a wonderful reminder of that. To everyone who was there: believe me when I say that I've missed you all, both individually and as a group, over the last two years, and seeing you again gave me great joy. (And for those of you who weren't there, such as some certain Minnesotans, you were missed as well, and I hope to see you at the next one!) And that's even without getting into the stuff that HAPPENED at the party, including the hilarious LARP, all the various games, Milk and Cookies, the epic mafia game of epicness (khyros, I'm sorry! I never seriously considered that one of the mafia may have died in the night, and boojum42 was clearly innocent!), and all of the awesomeness that went on... I will do my absolute best to come next year as well, and as it looks like I may have to come to the US at some point this year for an interview anyway, maybe I'll try for the July party as well if I can swing it. No promises on that score, though.
After the amazingness of vacation, I won't pretend that I wasn't a little sad to come back to Beijing and back to work. But I've gotten back on my feet pretty quickly. I've been keeping busy, in a good way - lots going on at work, including some interesting things, and lots of hanging out and other stuff with friends when not at work. Oh, there've been some storms (such as when I yelled at my roommate's younger sister, who was staying with us, for eating some pear muffins I'd baked without asking me first, and my roommate yelled at me for speaking in "that tone" to her sister and almost threatened to throw me out of the apartment) and some utterly bizarre things (such as when we discovered that the discrepancies that kept popping up between a word document we wanted to turn into a pretty pdf and the pdf itself were due to the fact that the designer's e-mail server was censoring out the names of certain schools - e.g., "Carnegie Mellon University" - and even countries - e.g., "Philippines" or even "China"; pastwatcher, if you were asking what the strangest thing that's happened to me at work was, it's that), but in general life's been progressing pretty smoothly.
And spring finally seems to be upon us. The temperature here has gotten much warmer in the past few weeks - odd, since Beijing usually doesn't start to warm up until after the lunar New Year, but I'm certainly not complaining. I was even able to eat a Taiwanese shaved ice today without wanting to die too much. And things seem to be heading toward resolutions or fresh starts in other ways. A weirdness in my contract situation (don't ask) may be finally fixed as early as March, and I may even get a small raise out of it, which would be quite welcome. And for the long term, as mentioned above, I'm not sure if I actually want that thing I'll be interviewing for in the US, but I'm excited to get the interview and would seriously consider it if the interview goes well. And for that last thing... we'll see, I guess - it looks like there's a resolution coming one way or the other, at least.
Perfect timing, too, with the New Year upon us shortly. And because my workplace is cool (or maybe just because it's weird), we have an annual three-week vacation for the holiday! I will be in Beijing for the first week, until Spring Festival itself, then will head to Wuhan in central China to explore Hubei and Hunan provinces for the last two weeks. I have very little idea what my itinerary will be, where I'll be staying (though I've reserved a hostel for the first two nights), or even how I'm getting back to Beijing, but I expect I'll survive. Whee!