The Querds

Being married to someone who is just as nerdy as you are is ❤❤❤

We experience the magic for the first time in a decade! We go on a windy ride through the Hundred Acre Woods, endure the creepiest ride in Walt Disney World, see some ridiculous birds, and I find a rollercoaster that doesn't actually terrify me!

Daytona Beach; 02.04.2017

The wind was doing ridiculous things to my mohawk the morning we got married, but everything still looked lovely, so I forgive mother nature of the inconvenience.

(If you're waiting for our proposal and wedding videos, those will be coming soon-ish!)

So how did we celebrate getting married this February? Well, why don't you come along and see? There's laughter, there's misadventure, there's me crying under a full moon!

Downtown Mount Dora; 11.16.2016

A few more favorites from our engagement photos. These railroad tracks were our last stop when taking pictures that day, so the sun was just starting to drift, shadows growing longer by the minute. Everything was warm and golden.

I am so, so in love with my wife. And I’m as emboldened as ever to continue on down this track with her, no matter where it leads.

We visited both #HPCelebration expos, compared heights with Hagrid, watched the amazing Chalk Twins in action, and watched movies on the lawn. Come see Universal's Celebration of Harry Potter with us!

(And while I love Harry Potter, I do suggest fans read Loralee Sepsey's amazing essay on the American branch of Potter: Dear J. K. Rowling, We’re Still Here. It’s important to view Potter with a critical lens.)

Downtown Mount Dora; 11.16.2016

There’s a metaphor here about people’s paths meeting and becoming one, but I’m too distracted by how cute we are together to be poetic.

We attended the Women's March here in Orlando where we listened to several amazing speakers and were among the thousands who marched around Lake Eola.

Women’s Rally Central Florida: Site ● Facebook ● Intagram

Organizations at the Women's Rally Central Florida ACLU ● Amnesty International Orlando ● Central Florida Freethought ● Jobs with Justice ● American Islamic Relations ● Equality Florida ● Farmworkers Association of FL ● First Unitarian Church of Orl ● Foundation for FL Environmental Protection ● Harbor House of Central Florida ● Ideas for Us ● League of Women Voters Orange County ● Move On ● Muslim Women's Organization ● National Org for Women ● Organize Now ● Planned Parenthood SW&CF ● Speak Up Wekiva 

Downtown Mount Dora; 11.16.2016

When we decided to do engagement photos, I knew that at some point I wanted to incorporate comics. They’re such an integral part of our relationship now, it would have been wrong to celebrate without them.

The best place seemed to be a bench by the fountain where Kat and I lingered on our very first date over a decade ago, when I still thought comics were for creeps and Kat wouldn’t let me touch any of her precious X-Men lest I dirty them with my unappreciative fingers. We were alien to one another, our bitterly guarded differences masking all of the things we had in common; it would be years before I started reading comics regularly, and to Kat’s credit, it was perfectly reasonable to be so cautious with her collection – my first comics, X-23: Target X, all ended up battered and coverless from overenthusiastic rereading.

Comics were a huge part of Kat’s childhood. She learned to read with issues of Catwoman; she spent weekends digging through longboxes in a trailer-turned-comicshop in Mississippi; she pilfered issues of Lobo and Transformers figures from her brother’s room when he wasn’t home. When we became girlfriends, Kat began patiently teaching me the names and histories of all the best Marvel characters, and despite my misgivings about the medium, I knew she was sharing something precious with me, and did my best to navigate this confusing new world between pages.

Now, I can’t imagine not sharing this fierce love of caped crusaders and overdramatic, sometimes intergalactic spectacle. I can’t imagine a summer not spent attending midnight showings and watching our heroes on screen; I can’t imagine not bemoaning a loathed writer or artist announced on a beloved title; I can’t imagine having an argument and it not so often centering on my still-careless treatment of floppies.

Thus, carried just as carefully as the bouquet Kat crafted, were copies of Angela: Queen of Hel #1 (2015; Bennett, Jacinto, Hans, Silva) and Midnighter #1 (2015; Orlando, Aco, Petrus, Fajardo), two of our favorite series in recent years. And they became part of the arguably most over-posed but extra-rad pictures we took to celebrate finally tying the knot legally.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Palm Island Park; 11.16.2016

One of my favorites from our engagement photos. At first I thought the harsh sunlight would spoil things, but I’m pretty in love with the result. 

‘And everything around her is a silver pool of light...’

some cool shit coming up this year, by kat.

More of The Querds: Youtube ● Instagram ● Twitter

I know that this year is already off to a rough start, with the Trump administration coming in and starting on every terrible thing they promised to do. This list isn’t meant to belittle that, it’s just a small way for me to share some of the positive things going on for me this year.

5.) Logan

This movie. This. Movie.

I didn’t even know I was excited for the last installment of the Wolverine movie franchise until that first trailer dropped. I don’t know what got me first: Johnny Cash playing in the background, the dystopian Fury Road desert shots, or Patrick Stewart back at it again with the only incarnation of Professor X I adore. 

We got a glimpse of Laura/X-23, too, but it wasn’t until that second red band trailer came out that I figured out this would probably be my favorite anticipated movie of the year. I get goosebumps just thinking about X-23 screaming into battle.  

Universal Islands of Adventure; 11.6.2016

We took a lot of pictures in 2016; of the pictures we took of ourselves, this little series of four is definitely my favorite.

We somehow managed to catch the sheer joy of being in love between shutter clicks, and it stops my breath every time I look back at them. I’ve never seen myself look so genuinely happy in a picture.

I’m grateful every day that I have someone that makes me feel this way. - MJ

Another day at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure :) Come have fun with us!

some words on storytelling and confidence, by mj.

More of The Querds: Youtube ● Instagram ● Twitter

I’ve always had a vibrant imagination. Growing up, I obsessively crafted stories using anything I had access to. As a kid I used toys, or particularly person-like sticks, to act out my ideas, but I also had an assortment of notebooks and glitter pens to indulge in more concrete and shareable storytelling. When I finally abandoned my Barbies after middle school, I got my first computer: my tech-savvy grandmother’s old Windows 98. I can still remember booting it up after school and eagerly going through the start menu to find that hideous cyan W, Word opening up like my own personal paperclip-guarded door to Narnia.  

I wrote voraciously as a teenager. I wrote poetry, short stories, and fanfiction; I journaled; I clogged forums with my thoughts and essays. I worked on half a dozen novels that, while abandoned unfinished, served as sparring grounds in which I developed my voice.