At the end of two weeks off, I'm mainly measuring myself by the non-work related shit I got done.
Here on Everything2, I managed six (I suppose seven, now) nodes over the course of the month. A large chunk of it represents more fiction writing than I've done on my own years - it turns out I'd been sinking way too much energy into games rather than my own stuff. Lesson learned: don't overcommit myself to projects I get nothing out of.
Out in meatspace, I wire-wrapped a cool dozen pendants in the space of two days. Most are for family. There's a few more to be completed and shipped to Maryland and carried with me when I visit Portland in February.
I spent time with old acquaintances from science fiction fandom, made friends, and showed up at Christmas. This allowed me to meet and talk with people who'd been supporting my mother's second husband during her divorce. This involved a lot of "wow, these guys are both a bit broken" and me validating some of the experiences of someone my mother attempted the sexual creepiness angle on.
This also allowed me to meet another second generation science fiction fan with parent problems. There's likely more of us than I thought: after we were done trading war stories, we discussed maybe doing some panels about growing up fanbrat. Some initial inspiration from that is coming out of the Five Geek Social Fallacies.
Aside from these highlights, it's been a challenging two weeks. My immune system, no longer on high alert from months of overwork and bad work politics, decided I needed a three to four day fever. The steam heat in the Witch House went out Friday night, leading me to hole up with the cats in my bedroom with an electric heater until my landlord could get matters sorted out. This being the second winter I've been here and the second time the system has done something completely unacceptable, I've begun looking for a new place.
Overall, this December aside, Boston has been a challenge, but it's been the kind of challenge that forces me to grow up and do more longterm planning. Given my tendency towards impulse, this isn't a bad thing.
I'm suspecting that 2018 will be a year of improving and sharpening habits and coping mechanisms and disposing of old ones I don't need as much. Here's to that.