Catch-up meme

from china_shop, because I miss you kitties daily even though I can't seem to sustain a posting habit.

So what have you been up to?
Nearly everything is going under major life changes; aside from that, mostly working and driving. I did take a long road trip with my mom, which was lovely.

Also, the kidlet and I are volunteering at the animal shelter, or, to put it another way, we perform the public service of petting cats a couple of evenings a week.

Major life changes? Same old same old?
Where even to begin ...

The spouse is done with school, ordained, and working as a Presbyterian pastor.

Unfortunately, his job is in a town of 3,000 an hour away. So from Sunday afternoon to Friday afternoon, the kidlet and I live in a quite tiny but rather charming duplex in New City, and on the weekends we live with the spouse and the cat in a rambling, eccentric, amazing 1800-vintage house provided by the church.

The church is tiny and friendly and sweet, though a bit less progressive than we would prefer.

The kidlet is 16, getting ready to be a junior in high school, and has come out as agender this year. The kidlet prefers the pronoun 'they,' but I spent four years in journalism school and find a singular 'they' kind of painful, so I'm trying to avoid pronouns altogether. This is easier when talking to the kidlet than when talking about the kidlet. Aside from wrestling with gender, the kidlet is writing fantasy and science fiction, singing, drawing, studying physics, and generally making my brain feel old.

Professionally, I'm in a frustrating place. I'm still working at Teranerd. Generally I like the company, but a massive round of layoffs shook me up; I'm bored with the work I do; also, this job won't stay in this location forever, and I have no desire to go to Minnesota when it moves. I'd like to get project management certified, but I feel like I have zero energy to devote to studying for the exam.

I adore New City and could easily settle here for good, but somehow I'm not making friends here. (Well, normally I'd be using weekends and church to look for friends, but my weekends and my church are both happening in Spouseville.)

What fandom are you in/do you spend most of your time in?
I really miss having a fandom. astolat writes Fast & Furious, so I read Fast & Furious; predatrix.livejournal.com writes Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, so I read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. I'm much looking forward to Marvel-universe movies but not feeling particularly fannish about them.

Where do you hang out online?
Here, if anywhere. I abandoned my old Tumblr because I couldn't handle the constant undertone of judgment and imminent attack; the kidlet helped me carefully curate a new one that subscribed to basically nothing but the kidlet's own page, some baby-animal pages, Important Birds, Ursula Vernon's personal page, Reapersun, and Iguanamouth.

What are you reading?
Lots of nonfiction about the Mississippi River, which might or might not end up being research for something fictional. I highly recommend Lee Sandlin's Wicked River: The Mississippi When Last It Was Wild.

What are you watching?
Marvel movies. The kidlet makes me look at Homestuck vids sometimes.

What are you making?
I think maybe I'm fallow? Because I'd hate to think I'd just run dry.

What are you squeeing about today?
The dumbo octopus.

If you could rope old fandom friends into a new fandom, it would be.....
I'm waiting for someone to rope me in!

I should really watch/read/dive into _______ and then come talk to you about it!
Something fantastic that I don't already know about.

What else is on your mind?
If my life were a film, all this change would happen in a nice neat montage. But I'm in the middle of it, and it's occupying pretty much all the energy I've got.