Happy St. Eustace's Day to any other Narnians out there!
crouching scientist, hidden dragon - Chronicles of Narnia [Archive of Our Own]
“Ah-CHOO!” Eustace sneezed explosively, straight into the box. Dust flew everywhere. The room shimmered oddly in the light before fading away altogether. Eustace stared at a cluster of ferns that had not been there a moment ago.
“Pole?” he managed.
Jill sighed. “That answers that. Atlantean dust. We aren’t in London anymore, Scrubb.”
And we aren’t alone, Eustace wanted to add, but the words died in his throat. The ferns were staring back.
One yellow eye, larger than an eagle owl’s, with a slitted pupil like a crocodile’s. Pebbled skin around the eye. A hint of scarlet feathers. Feathers? Feathers! Eustace’s vision sparkled. He had to remind himself to breathe.
“Pole.”
September is just wringing me out so far. The first new year celebration, Labor Day, has passed, and a new school year started. We're still getting back into the routine of that and figuring out what works with several changes this year. Our first Girl Scout meeting is on Wednesday evening, Bug is still doing gymnastics and ninja and trapeze and she loves all of them enough that it's really hard to ask her to give any up, so we're trying and seeing how it works this semester with all three. (January will bring the basketball season so I'm not sure what we'll do then.)
Somewhere around the end of the summer I decided that if the HOA Board was going to drive me crazy I might as well put myself in a position where I can do something about at least some of the things annoying me, and that's how I ended up with all of the paperwork records, the checkbook, bank account access, and the extra keys. I'm also the de-facto contact for the bookkeeper, so I think I'm the acting treasurer? I'm not the only one doing a lot of work but let me tell you that when one of my fellow board members mentions the option of contracting with a building management option, it sounds REALLY good right now.
I had my annual review at work, and by this point my boss knows me well enough that she didn't put it on my calendar more than a day in advance so I didn't have to worry about it very long. (My boss also starts all unscheduled meetings with "you're not in trouble" which I also appreciate; can you tell I have some weird hangups from previous jobs?) I got a decent raise and with that, my earnings have finally caught back up to where they were before I stopped working to stay home with Bug when she was a baby. Which is a weird thought. In fairness, I did also change industries in there, and the time off and switch gave me the chance to handle my transition without having to come out at work at any point, and I'm really lucky we were able to afford me staying home with her as long as I did; I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Last weekend was Pagan Pride, and we went, and it was actually nice out for a change. Bug got to ride the carousel and the train at Oaks Park. The druids are doing a thing next weekend for the equinox and we're thinking about going; it'll be a long Saturday but it might be worth it to Do A Thing with Some People. Or maybe I'll just come away feeling awkward and isolated again, I don't know until we try it.
I've been experimenting with digital art lately. If anybody has recommendations of tutorials, especially procreate tutorials or favorite brushes or whatever, I'm totally here for recommendations. I'm also thinking I'd like to have somewhere to post my art and stuff again... I have an instagram and a tumblr. I posted one or two things on tumblr. I dunno. I should probably just post shit here, since I can upload pictures, I know it's not the most elegant but I'm used to it, you know?