2012 wrap-up
For the last few months I've found it awkward when someone I only see rarely asks "How've you been?" We all know a very quick reply is expected, and I don't have a quick answer.
2012 was a muddle; there were a lot of small joys and successes, but they've been overshadowed by a few huge stressors.
The Bad
I went the entire year without finding a renter for the spare room after B moved out last December, which amounts to thousands of dollars I thought I'd have coming in that I didn't. That stress was compounded when Miss Flake agreed to rent from me in September and then vanished, effectively blocking me from attempting to rent the room during the best season and leaving some of her stuff for me to deal with -- with the added bonus that if I just sold it on craigslist she could come back and accuse me of theft, so I have to build a solid paper trail first.
Through the latter half of the year my Big Project was drawing up plans to turn my garage into a studio, something I've been planning on doing since I bought the house but have been dragging on (partly because of scope creep -- the project as envisioned now is bigger than how I imagined it when I bought the house). In November the city denied my plan unless I pave part of my front yard to provide parking for the car I don't own. I've been in to talk with them sense, and made no headway. It's been... fairly crushing, really.
At work I went up to 34 hours a week (from 30), which didn't replace the missing rental income, but helped. It also means longer days, though, and work has been nuts -- our director was let go for ethical violations early in the year; the interim director is the person who bullied my coworker and I in a string of meetings a few years ago; the HR department hired a homophobe to speak at our all staff event, which lead to months of tension and an even worse relationship between staff and management than we had before, which is really saying something, because it's always been crap.
I made very little progress on the yarden, because I was trying to focus on the studio plans that went nowhere.
I didn't get in nearly enough biking because I started the year with knee pain and didn't want to screw things up more than they already are.
The Good
Pinniped played some good gigs, got a lot tighter, and recorded a decent demo (which we'll release as a cheap short album if we can get permission from a few tune composers).
I started taking voice lessons in January, and though I don't practice nearly as much as I ought (and I kick myself about that repeatedly), my voice is really improving -- enough so that my family notices. I wanted to take lessons for years, but never had a good enough excuse for the time/money expenditure. Playing with Pinniped gave me the excuse.
I officially performed at Folklife for the first time, for one of the first contra dances of the festival! Not only that, but the waltz we played is one I wrote, and several dancers came up to me after to specifically ask about that waltz. :D
I finished my giant fanfic, which comes to almost 400 pages and is longer than anything else I've ever written by a factor of ten. True, the epilogue isn't posted yet, but I finished writing it on the 30th -- I'm just waiting to get it back from my beta (it could also use edits and rewrites over all, I'm sure). Once I let myself off my self-imposed schedule getting motivated was a lot harder, and it was tough going towards the end there, but it may be the largest single project I've ever completed.
Things with E have been great, and we kind of totally missed celebrating passed our 5 year anniversary (dinner to be had at a later date). Nothing dramatic, just... good.
I made some time for art. Not a ton, and not as much as I need, but enough that I could see progress.
the Hopeful Bits
A guy named AJ is supposed to move into the rental room today. I'm not counting chickens 'til they hatch, this time, but if he works out okay I'll be much better off next year than I was this year.
I have the beginnings of a plan for dealing with the city and studio. Not exactly a solution, but a few ideas of what I need to do next in order to figure things out, and a rough idea of plans B, C, and D (B: go straight to the city administrator and cajole; C: drastically reduce scope of plan such that it remains functionally a garage, and get that permitted; D: actually redesign my front yard and do it all above board).
We have a new Director at work, a former library manager who most of the staff love. This is the first time in my employment here, with three different directors, where there's a generally positive attitude from staff to the director. She's very, very well aware of the difficulties we've had with HR and with management, and things could get a lot better, in all sorts of small ways.
With income from the rent-a-room I should be able to hire a friend to help with some of the most grueling yarden projects.
I restarted my knee exercises this morning, because I really want to get on my bike again. Only partly because my bodice really didn't fit that well over my little belly at our New Year's feast. :P
Some of 2012 sucked, but we're done with that. Moving on!
2012 was a muddle; there were a lot of small joys and successes, but they've been overshadowed by a few huge stressors.
The Bad
I went the entire year without finding a renter for the spare room after B moved out last December, which amounts to thousands of dollars I thought I'd have coming in that I didn't. That stress was compounded when Miss Flake agreed to rent from me in September and then vanished, effectively blocking me from attempting to rent the room during the best season and leaving some of her stuff for me to deal with -- with the added bonus that if I just sold it on craigslist she could come back and accuse me of theft, so I have to build a solid paper trail first.
Through the latter half of the year my Big Project was drawing up plans to turn my garage into a studio, something I've been planning on doing since I bought the house but have been dragging on (partly because of scope creep -- the project as envisioned now is bigger than how I imagined it when I bought the house). In November the city denied my plan unless I pave part of my front yard to provide parking for the car I don't own. I've been in to talk with them sense, and made no headway. It's been... fairly crushing, really.
At work I went up to 34 hours a week (from 30), which didn't replace the missing rental income, but helped. It also means longer days, though, and work has been nuts -- our director was let go for ethical violations early in the year; the interim director is the person who bullied my coworker and I in a string of meetings a few years ago; the HR department hired a homophobe to speak at our all staff event, which lead to months of tension and an even worse relationship between staff and management than we had before, which is really saying something, because it's always been crap.
I made very little progress on the yarden, because I was trying to focus on the studio plans that went nowhere.
I didn't get in nearly enough biking because I started the year with knee pain and didn't want to screw things up more than they already are.
The Good
Pinniped played some good gigs, got a lot tighter, and recorded a decent demo (which we'll release as a cheap short album if we can get permission from a few tune composers).
I started taking voice lessons in January, and though I don't practice nearly as much as I ought (and I kick myself about that repeatedly), my voice is really improving -- enough so that my family notices. I wanted to take lessons for years, but never had a good enough excuse for the time/money expenditure. Playing with Pinniped gave me the excuse.
I officially performed at Folklife for the first time, for one of the first contra dances of the festival! Not only that, but the waltz we played is one I wrote, and several dancers came up to me after to specifically ask about that waltz. :D
I finished my giant fanfic, which comes to almost 400 pages and is longer than anything else I've ever written by a factor of ten. True, the epilogue isn't posted yet, but I finished writing it on the 30th -- I'm just waiting to get it back from my beta (it could also use edits and rewrites over all, I'm sure). Once I let myself off my self-imposed schedule getting motivated was a lot harder, and it was tough going towards the end there, but it may be the largest single project I've ever completed.
Things with E have been great, and we kind of totally missed celebrating passed our 5 year anniversary (dinner to be had at a later date). Nothing dramatic, just... good.
I made some time for art. Not a ton, and not as much as I need, but enough that I could see progress.
the Hopeful Bits
A guy named AJ is supposed to move into the rental room today. I'm not counting chickens 'til they hatch, this time, but if he works out okay I'll be much better off next year than I was this year.
I have the beginnings of a plan for dealing with the city and studio. Not exactly a solution, but a few ideas of what I need to do next in order to figure things out, and a rough idea of plans B, C, and D (B: go straight to the city administrator and cajole; C: drastically reduce scope of plan such that it remains functionally a garage, and get that permitted; D: actually redesign my front yard and do it all above board).
We have a new Director at work, a former library manager who most of the staff love. This is the first time in my employment here, with three different directors, where there's a generally positive attitude from staff to the director. She's very, very well aware of the difficulties we've had with HR and with management, and things could get a lot better, in all sorts of small ways.
With income from the rent-a-room I should be able to hire a friend to help with some of the most grueling yarden projects.
I restarted my knee exercises this morning, because I really want to get on my bike again. Only partly because my bodice really didn't fit that well over my little belly at our New Year's feast. :P
Some of 2012 sucked, but we're done with that. Moving on!