Hi, I'm Beth. I create: words and art. I do yoga. I cook tasty food. I publish Shimmer magazine. Now 37% more purple. Needful Things
Hi, I'm Beth. I create: words and art. I do yoga. I cook tasty food. I publish Shimmer magazine. Now 37% more purple. Needful Things
Q: Ahahaha, you got married? That’s a joke, right?
A: Nope! Sean and I really got married on Monday, Oct 5. All witnessed and photographed and legal and everything.
Q: Wow, why so sudden? Why didn’t you plan a big wedding and/or tell me? Are you pregnant??
A: We always figured we’d get married with little fuss someday when the time was right; I guess the time was right. Sean needed health insurance, so we figured we might as well. We did not get a chance to tell everyone we wanted to, though we did talk about it on our blogs, twitter, and facebook (so follow us there if you want to know what we’re up to!). I am not pregnant.
Q: Did you wear shoes to the wedding?
A: Yes, Mom.
Q: So how was the ceremony?
A: It was really nice. We were joined by our friends Keri and Jeff, Skipper, and Chris and his lovely wife Brenda. Chris took photos for us, and Keri and Skipper were our official witnesses. The ceremony was the standard one written by the county clerk, and it was great. Afterwards, we went to Ruth’s Diner and ate way too much food.
Q: So are you changing your name?
A: No, no. I’ll retain my own identity instead of being subsumed into Sean’s. I’m casting off the shackles of patriarchal hegemony and keeping my “maiden” name, given to me by my father.
Q: You really crack yourself up, don’t you?
A: Oh, yes.
Q: So, uh, we didn’t get you any presents. What can we get you?
A: Aww, that’s sweet, but you don’t have to get us anything. We’re cool. We’ve got everything we need and a lot that we don’t need, including a hot dog toaster.
If you must get us something, Sean would love a pizza. We would also make good use of gift certificates (to pretty much anywhere, including Ikea, local restaurants, hotels, bookstores, etc).
Or, channel your generosity to people who really need it: support organizations working for marriage equality in all states, so that all couples can just run off and get married if they want to.
A: Where are the photos?
Q: Sean’s got a few up on his web site; there will be more.
Monday morning I’m getting married. Sean and I have been living together for two and a half years or so, and have always figured we’d get married someday. Might as well be Monday, eh?
The decision to do it now started as part of a discussion about how Sean needs health insurance — so if this doesn’t work out, I shall blame the Republicans for blocking health care reform.
So tomorrow I’ll be a boring old married lady. See you then!
We arrived at the grocery store last night, and the power was out. A grocery store on emergency power is dim and oddly quiet: no muzak, no air conditioner, none of the background noise you don’t really notice until it’s gone. The outage was expected to last another 6 or 7 hours. Employees were busy sealing off the refrigerated sections with big sheets of plastic and duct tape. They tied the doors of the freezers shut. Hope they’re able to salvage most of it!
Rotisserie chicken was on sale, half price. We couldn’t buy half the groceries we needed but chicken made a nice dinner. Ate while watching Watchmen (which I thought was terrific).
Today Sean offered to make me a sandwich with some of the leftover chicken. Yum, I said. But how about chicken salad? Sure, he said, and I took off to run some errands. I’m thinking, a few slices of chicken, diced, with mayo, etc. Came back from my errands and discovered he’d picked the carcass clean and made giant bowls full of chicken salad, and tossed the bones (no stock for me, alas!). It wasn’t what I had in mind but it sure is good.
And there’s a lot of it. Want some?
Settling in for a lazy Saturday now. I’m going to go read a book until the nap kicks in.
Over at the Shimmer blog, I’ve posted a list of the stories we’ve purchased so far for our 12th issue, coming later this year.
It’s such a great lineup! I can’t wait until this issue is released and everyone can read it.
Issue 11, the Clockwork Jungle Book, our collection of steampunk animal parables, is currently in the proofreading stage and will be off to the printers soon–expect that in early September.
And if you haven’t yet downloaded Issue 10, this would be a splendid time. Issue 10 is totally free to download, so check it out.
I’ve got this shiny new web site — now what?
Well, I’m not sure; let’s find out together, shall we? I had a blog at blogger, but never quite found my public voice, or a compelling focus for the blog. Maybe now that I’m in a space that’s unequivocably mine, I’ll feel freer to find it. I hope so; I think the best blogs are the ones that have a distinctive personality that shines through the words, for better or for worse.
One thing that’s on my mind a lot these days is my slow process of getting my shit together. I’d like to share what I’ve figured out so far, in hopes that it will be useful to others, and in hopes of getting advice and inspiration and insights from comments. I doubt I’ll ever be in a position to do “Ten Tips to Supercharge Your Productivity” or other helpy posts, but I certainly can say: here’s what I’m trying, here’s what’s worked so far, and listen to what other people have to say.
Shimmer’s on my mind. Writing’s on my mind. My life is on my mind.
And I’m going to tell you what it looks like from here. That’s the best I can do.