stormkeeper_lovedoris | Entries tagged with year-end reflection

I normally do this before the new year - I must be slipping.

Here are a few significant things for me in 2024:

- I volunteered to take on some new duties at work

- I did a lot of political action: volunteering at Postcards to Swing States, stll doing the Dems' farmers market table and getting the Volunteer of the Year award from them, and completing about five "lists" (each with about 50 people to contact) in Wisconsin. I also got to attend the DNC though that was through my job. It was still incredible, even though Harris lost and I got COVID.

- This was another great year for fanfic, with Shadowhunters (and, to a lesser extent, Shadow and Bone) fans reading and commenting on my stuff

- And Doris and I went to London in February for an incredible Shadow and Bone convention. Also we went to NYC in October to see an Alaska show, and the trip was just great - we got to reconnect with Pam and enjoy a fun whirlwind weekend in the city. I'd add that having 2 fandom friends from Europe visit and stay for 10 or 11 (I can't remember) days was good too. We had fun, and this introvert here did fine,

- Health: Doris was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. I started taking estrogen after reading about its benefits.

- Still very thankful for the things that matter: my family, my friends, where I live, etc etc

Some great books I read in 2024:

Non fiction:

Coming Home by Brittney Griner

We Were Once a Family by Roxanna Asgarian

Victory. Stand! By Tommy Smith, Derrick Barnes, and Dawud Anyabwile

I Survived Capitalism and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt by Madeline Pendleton

README.txt by Chelsea Manning

Beyond Power by Marilyn French

Be a Revolution by Ijeoma Oluo

Keanu Reeves Is Not In Love With You by Becky Holmes

The Confidence Men by Margalit Fox

Fiction:

The Wolf Den trilogy by Elodie Harper

I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

Matrix by Lauren Groff

Time for the annual year-end reflection!

First, some of the major things that happened this year:

- My brother-in-law died in January, He was only 51 and this was unexpected. Though we were not super-close (he lived in California), I liked him.

- Also in January, Doris and I reached a milestone of 20 years together. We didn't do anything to celebrate it though I got her a gift. But we do have plans next month to celebrate 21 years.

- In April, I got on an airplane for the first time since January 2020 - for a six-day business trip that I didn't want to go on. But it was fine. Didn't love the experience but did fine

- In the summer and fall, I canvassed a lot for Lauren Underwood. (And she won!) And I volunteered a ton with Postcards to Swing States. Once Roe was overturned, I vowed to do something political each week, and until the election, I did! I either canvassed for Underwood or volunteered at Postcards every week. I feel that this was one of the most meaningful and impactful things I did this year. (What, writing Spartacus fanfic isn't impactful?)

- In October, I officiated Ann and Rollin's wedding! It was an honor. A weekend I'll never forget

- In November, Mom and I flew to LA for Anime Pasadena. Got to meet an actor I love (Alessandro Juliani!) and just as importantly, had a lot of fun with mom

Now, other categories....

Family, Friends, Work, Doris, Politics:

I'm grateful for what I have here. The major "events" in these categories are listed above. Doris and I went on a trip to Lake Geneva, WI; that was lovely. Work and my coworkers are still good, and I'm so glad for things like game nights and Scrabble dates that build structure and consistency into friendships. (Kinda like having a friendship book club).

Fandom:

I started the year with Spartacus being my main fandom but swung back to my previous fandom, The 100. (And how it happened absolutely cracks me up, but the short story is that I started watching Battlestar Galactica, came to really love ones of its stars Alessandro Juliani, who I also had liked from The 100. So my love for him resulted in me getting back into The 100, and doing a rewatch with my fandom friend Mia in Germany). And then I went right back to writing fanfic in The 100 too.

(Also, speaking of Mia….can I be sad for a moment that she didn’t get me anything for Christmas? We always exchange birthday and Christmas gifts. Usually something small like a fic or a flurry of comments on the other person’s fic. She didn’t do anything this year. She has mentioned over the past few months that she has been low on ideas and inspiration.)

Also in the fandom realm, I had many wonderful contacts/messages with Sachin (who played my favorite character on The 100). Including him saying that if I ever am in Vancouver, we should have dinner together. I tried to go in November but I had COVID and had to cancel the trip. It's been rescheduled for February so - fingers crossed. It would be so nice to see him in person again. The last time (and first time) I saw him in person was January 2020.

Favorite Books of the Year because I always do this:

Fiction:

Haven by Emma Donoghue

The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow

Company of Liars by Karen Maitland

White Houses by Amy Bloom
Everyone in this Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin

(I'd say Haven was the best of the above)

Non-fiction:

Women Rowing North by Mary Pipher

Imaginable by Jane McGonigal

Breaking the Age Code by Becca Levy

Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman

You Can’t Be Serious by Kal Penn

To Shake the Sleeping Self by Jedidiah Jenkins

Overall I think the thing I'm most proud of is the political activism.

Edit - I forgot to mention that I started therapy in 2022. It's been good. My therapist recently quit due to health and other issues, but I met the new one and we have an appointment in January. (It's all done online)

(Sorry for all the different fonts. DW really isn't that easy to format, is it?)

The year is almost over, I may as well take some time to reflect on it.

Work
I almost wrote that nothing much happened here, but there's a lot I can put here. First, I continued working from home till October, and then went in 1 day per week. Early in the year, I interviewed for a DEI role but didn't get it. I completed Cornell University's certification in Project Management. My team had a big, in-person meeting early in December, and I stayed at a hotel the first night - something I haven't done since early last year.

Fandom

Pretty much fandom for me this year was all about Spartacus though I still love The 100. I also got pretty into The Outpost but never wrote any fic for it.

And speaking of fic, I started writing Spartacus in 2020 but did most of it this year. A look at the numbers....posted 13 fics, ranging in length from 2,900 words to 40,000. Average kudos on these fics comes to 81.

Books

This was a great year for books! I’ll list my absolute favorites below, like I usually do but even with this long list, there are plenty that didn’t quite make the cut but were still incredible.

Fiction -

o White Houses by Amy Bloom (Note: I finished this just the other day but it will be on whenever my next book report is posted)

o A Song of Flight by Juliet Marillier

o The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue

o The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

o Slippery Creatures by KJ Charles

o Women Talking by Miriam Toews

Non fic -

- The Outlaw Ocean by Ian Urbina

- Humans: A Brief History of How We Effed It All Up and Truth: A Brief History of Total Bullshit by Tom Phillips

- A Wild and Precious Life by Edie Windsor with Joshua Lyon

- My Holiday in North Korea by Wendy E. Simmons

- The Less People Know About Us by Axton Betz-Hamilton

- I Have Something to Tell You by Chasten Buttigieg

- Thick and Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom

- The Purpose of Power by Alicia Garza

- The Fox Hunt by Mohammed al Samawi

- Me and White Supremacy by Layla F Saad

Friends, family, Doris
I wish I had more to say here. Everything is fine in this area. I guess in general I'm just glad to have a wife, a family, and friends and that most of them seem to be doing at least somewhere between ok and good.

No big vacations thanks to COVID. (And thanks to Doris's work schedule as usual. Never forget that the last 'real' vacation we took was January 2016.) Doris and I did have some nice weekend trips to Galena and Saugatuck this year.

Politics
Volunteered with Postcards to Swing States. (And a bit with the local Dems, on their fundraiser and staffing their table at the farmer's market). I plan to really step up with Postcards in the New Year. There’s no reason not to. It’s decently close to me, there is no annoying phone banking or canvassing, in fact there’s not much contact with anyone else, and it looks like the postcards actually work (https://turnoutpac.medium.com/a-gateway-to-activism-postcards-win-close-elections-5bf7f45da15a)

But yeah, about politics, it does feel like if we can’t get voting rights passed on the federal level that 2022 might be the last elections this country has. One political party has abandoned even saying they care about democracy.

And on that happy note - cheers to 2022!

Let's do the year-end reflection now. Why not?
I will use different groupings than usual.

I wanted 3 things this year....

I wanted Trump to be gone, me to still have a job, and things to end well in canon for my OTP of a show that I've been obsessed with for a year and a half. I got all three. Weird.

The Saturday after Election Day when the race was called was grand, as was watching all the celebrations on CNN.

Fandom

Fandom in 2020 was....awesome. The year started with my flying to Vancouver for Unity Days, a con for The 100. (My last flight since COVID, presumably my last flight for a while). Unity Days was....awesome. I got so much time with the actors who play my OTP. They were....awesome. (I will stop using that adjective but know that I really mean it!) Damn this con was good. I'm doubly glad that I went because the one that was supposed to take place in April keeps getting postponed. (Which is a good thing, though I wish they'd take it online)
My birthday in September, I won the triple crown. One of my OTP's actors (Sachin) wrote me a birthday DM on Twitter! Two people wrote me birthday fanfic featuring my OTP. And the episode of The 100 that aired like the day before my b-day contained a post-sex scene of my OTP something I had never, ever dreamed I'd get. (And Sachin even replied to my tweet about it where I asked if people could hear me screaming all the way from Chicago)
Then I got into Spartacus, wrote a fanfic, and got way more comments and kudos than I'd dreamed. I love it, love the praise, and my OTP in Spartacus also got to ride off into the sunset together in canon. (Sidenote: I wonder if I will ever again ship a couple that is not M/M. Hmmm). (Also, edited in later....since I made this post 2 hours ago, I've gotten 4 more glowing comments on my fanfic!! Damn this fandom is generous with praise and I love it beyond all words!! I am practically dancing around the room now)

Also about my birthday...

Doris's gift was so good and so perfect. She got notes from my friends and family and put them inside Little Free Libraries for me to discover.

How can you talk about 2020 without talking about COVID?

I can't. I've said that if Doris and I come out of this with our lives and without being financially ruined, then we are lucky. So far we are. Most Americans and many outside the US are not so lucky.

Some books I loved

I read some great books this year! This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Fiction:

Queen of the Sea by Dylan Meconis

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy

A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier

Stay and Fight by Madeline Ffitch

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Nonfiction:

This is What America Looks Like by Ilhan Omar

Minority Leader by Stacey Abrams

Grilled by Leah Garces

Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive by Stephanie Land

No Walls and the Recurring Dream by Ani DeFranco

Oh, and my eyesight Went To Hell This Year - I should officially note that my eyesight went down the crapper this year. Before 2020, I used reading glasses to read in bed before sleep. On the plane to Vancouver in January, I noted that I could barely read the book in front of me and wished my reading glasses hadn't been packed away. I basically wear readers all the time now. Haven't been in the office since March and didn't used to bring reading glasses to it, but whenever I go back, I will have to keep a pair there as I can't read a computer screen without them.

Thank you to anyone reading this. Love you!