#rocket bae

today is my birthday and rocket bae is here :D those are really two things but it was looking like they might not make it so the combo is an extra-good thing

new job is fun and interesting and challenging in good ways, I think I'm gonna be really happy with it

I get $500 reimbursement for home office stuff so I ordered a nice desk! and I'm reorganizing the spare room which means new shelves, I love assembling furniture

one of the people who interviewed me for this job told me that something i said during the interview connected with her so deeply she sent it to all the managing editors right after the call

Steph gave me a v cute pin that says "Plant Daddy" <3

my mom sent me several gifts including a rainbow-on-black Kraken shirt with a note saying "it's not black, it's dark heather charcoal" which cracked me up

I made chocolate peanut butter shortbread bars and they are so fckn good. also burritos with cilantro from the garden, pasta with yellow squash, egg scramble with basil from the garden, salad with dill from the garden in the dressing, cherry smoothies with cocoa nibs—goddamn I have missed feeding my people

finally got travel logistics figured out and I get to see rocket bae on WEDNESDAYYYYYY :D

did not win the Lambda but I was genuinely not that fussed about the winning, the nominees in our category were all so different that it was silly to compare us anyway, and I think the acceptance speech I prepped is really good and could be reused if we win something else so that's nice to have in our back pocket

had to do a rental property inspection thing I was really stressed about but it turned out to be a breeze

I've been spinning poi and it's been good for my back issues, hadn't really done that in a while but I do love it a lot

pulled up and ate the first radish! so spicy and tasty omnomnom

replanted some seeds that didn't emerge (there was a heat wave right after I planted the first time) and I rigged some chicken wire to dissuade whatever's been digging in one of my vegetable beds, which so far seems to be working

finally got my Roy/Jamie(/Keeley) recslists posted, I'd been working on that project for quite a while because I kept getting caught up in rereading everything XD

been writing a bunch! haven't actually finished much, but I've gotten a lot done on several different fics plus the Lammy speech and an outline/rough draft of a column I was invited to write for The Gay & Lesbian Review

had a thing of cashews that was getting elderly so I made a ton of cashew cream and then cooked some different stuff with it, mac-n-cheese and scalloped sweet potatoes and a spinach lemon sauce over pasta with chopped pecans, and it was all really good

found out that my girlfriend writes lowercase "s" two different ways and switches between them afaict randomly, which is just incredibly endearing to me <3

someone left a comment on my fic calling me an "emotional chiropractor" and that made me smile

discovered the song "Contagious" by Night Riots and it hit just right, I've been listening to it a lot

my BOY my GUY my MAN Joey Daccord had to step up and play two games for the Kraken this week and he did SO GOOD Y'ALL! it was unexpected on two levels, first that it would be him getting the callup instead of Driedger and second that he would actually get the start over Jones, and he made the absolute most of the opportunity—one of the postgame talking heads was a bit of an ass about the first one because he let in four, but Hakstol understood the circumstances (one extremely weird double bounce no goalie could have done anything about, two 6-on-5 situations our guys were not defending well) and sang his praises, and we won anyway. then the second one we lost in a shootout, but the only one he let in during regulation was a rebound off a killer initial save and then he went absolute beast mode in OT, just unbelievable. there's always gonna be a Mike Smith-shaped hole in my soul, but Daccord obviously idolized the guy when he was at Arizona State and plays so much like him that watching him really feels a little like coming home <3

really enjoyed this week's Ted Lasso ep, especially (spoiler warning) the part where Jamie sees Roy and Keeley leaving in two different directions and it's set up to make you think he's gonna go after Keeley to hit on her now that she's single again but instead HE GOES AFTER ROY to ineptly attempt empathy and hugs <333

listened to Debby Friday's debut album four times yesterday and three times so far today, I am so so so so into it

after some disappointing incidents with NHL pride nights, something cool happened with my local junior league team, the Thunderbirds—they didn't have an official pride night planned this season, so the fans just... made one happen themselves! the T-Birds have the only out gay player in the WHL, Luke Prokop, and EVERY SINGLE PLAYER used rainbow stick tape during warmups for this UNOFFICIAL pride night in support of their teammate, AND some of them kept the tape during the game. which, listen, I use Pride tape myself, but only on parts of the stick I don't have to handle the puck with, because real talk it is some crappy-ass tape, and any serious hockey player would know that just from touching it, so these guys were basically saying that supporting their teammate was more important to them than being good at hockey, and I just have a whole lot of feelings okay

Dallas has a goalie named Jake Oettinger whose nickname is Otter and he has lil cartoon otters painted on his goalie mask, which delighted both rocket bae and my mom (both big otter fans)

I started explaining what was going on during a Kraken game to Steph and she was like "I understood the goalie interference part" I'm so proud <3

I cut my hair and it feels very nice to not have all that shagginess on my neck

got two of the other Lammy-nominated anthologies from the library and they're both so impressive! (also both extremely different from each other and from Xenocultivars, doesn't really seem fair to compare us all tbh, but I guess that's just how it goes with awards)

rearranged my room to bring in a comfy chair and in the process found the fucking laptop I was 100% convinced must have gotten stuck in with rocket bae's stuff in storage because I had looked absolutely everywhere, including the place it actually was at least 3 times *eyeroll* but it has been found, hallelujah

DING DONG THE AVS ARE DEAD

the series against Dallas has been interesting—the first game was eerily evenly matched by the analytics, then in game 2 they annihilated us and in game 3 we annihilated them, neither game was at ALL close. so what's gonna happen next? idk but I'm excited!

spent a bunch of time in the garden, cleared out a whole lot of weeds and got some veggies and herbs planted, very excited to watch things grow

wore a Kraken tank top to the garden center and a little old lady shuffling out with a walker saw it and yelled "GO KRAKEN"

got 18oz of blueberries for the price of 6oz so I made pancakes with blueberry compote and maple cream cheese drizzle and they were so good

I've been on a big asparagus kick, asparagus is so good. also did a garlicky spinach lemon sauce over pasta and my egg scramble this morning was phenomenal. sometimes it's hard for me to get into making food when I don't have anyone to make it for, but lately I've been feeling a little bit more able to cook things for just myself and it's been nice

my garbage disposal got jammed and I fixed it with tools and felt very butch about it

I told rocket bae that Steph was eating Froot Loop waffles and they asked "whole or minced Froot Loops?" and the phrase "minced Froot Loops" just delights me so much

I'd been saving the Phil Dunster ep of Brett Goldstein's podcast for a time of need and a few days ago I decided it was time to break the glass and and it was perfect, exactly what I wanted it to be, they love each other so much and it makes me so happy

more flowers popping up in the yard! and my Japanese maple is looking lovely :)

for the first time in my entire 32 years of life, an NHL team in the city where I live is going to the playoffs. having a really hard time articulating my emotions about this, but... I keep thinking about presenting the Chris Hansen petition for the SoDo arena plan to the joint city/county council a decade ago, wearing a Seattle Metropolitans shirsey I made with sharpies because I was too broke to buy the replica sweater, and that room was PACKED with Sonics gear, it was just me and John and Paul and maybe a couple other hockey fans and everybody else was there for basketball. and now Seattle is a fucking amazing hockey town, this season has gone really well, the playoffs are going to be insane, and I have been here and I have been waiting and I am just. having feelings.

wrote another fic and it's been unexpectedly well-received, I posted it four days ago and it has uhhh the seventh-most kudos of all T-rated Roy/Jamie fics on AO3? and everything above it was posted at least a year ago and has way more hits. so that's a pretty good feeling

had a really nice long chill phone call with rocket bae while they were puttering around doing stuff <3 phone calls have been hard lately for a lot of reasons and it was great to have one that was just pleasant for once

a friend commissioned me to make a tomato-sauce-scented candle and I've been having fun testing out the fragrance oils for it, the oregano one smells so so good

Steph referred to a four-minute double minor for high-sticking as a "blood penalty" and it made me laugh

first team task on S15 of Taskmaster and the team groupings are exactly what I wanted them to be, really loving this series so far

made a pasta thing with asparagus and mushrooms and soy chicken that was v tasty, and I've been making some bomb salads with homemade dressings too

brought homemade millionaire's shortbread to some local pals last Sunday and the weather was reasonable so I got to hang around chatting with some of them, really good to get some social time in

wrote a fic and people said nice things about it, always a good treat for the ol' dopaminergic system

a Kraken game broadcast on ESPN this week had two women doing the commentary! I've heard Cassie Campbell doing color for Calgary but I don't think I've ever heard a woman doing the pxp, that was really cool

this week's Ted Lasso was so good, explicit queer rep AND shippy dynamics happening with my pairing

the first ep of Taskmaster S15 came out and it was a delight, this looks like a really great lineup. I was a little nervous about how Greg and Alex would handle Mae Martin's pronouns, I didn't think they'd be assholes about it on purpose but I was definitely anticipating some awkwardness or bad jokes or audible scarequotes and nope, they are both doing absolutely fine

there was a REALLY big good thing this week, like the best thing that's happened to me all year, but I'm not allowed to talk about it for a few more days

it's too early to be sure but I think? maybe? there's a possibility? that I've finally got my meds figured out?? I do sometimes have a few good days and then fall back in the hole, so no counting of chickens, but fingers extremely crossed

the knot in my back has eased up a lot the last few days (which is part of why I don't want to jump to conclusions about the meds thing, maybe I just do better when I'm not in constant pain)

it was rocket bae's birthday this week and they loved the otter drawing I did for them :)

I got a water filter pitcher to keep with me in my bedroom or living room so I can refill my glass without having to get up and it is helping me SO much with hydration

unfucked the SQ website, which is still not where we want it to be but at least it's not actively broken

moved forward a good bit on the candle business project

had an unexpectedly intense conversation with an old friend in the middle of the night and came away from it with some new ideas for dealing with an ongoing tough situation

I haven't been doing much dedicated sitting-and-writing time but I have been consistently generating ideas for my WIPs and adding to them here and there, and several of them are approximately one good hyperfocus away from done

I'm in the process of building a shelf for all my candle shit and I am having SO much fun with it, love making fiddly lil diagrams and hauling around lorge hunks of wood and bashing things with a hammer until they turn into what I want them to be!