So Die Well With Some Good Distractions

And somehow, two blogless weeks just whizzed past me. Apparently that happens when you have to sit at desks all day and look serious.

I'm not good at looking serious.

The jobs are going well, although I am really not good at sitting at a desk for eight hours a day. I strongly suspect that no one is, which makes me question this whole capitalist system. I could at least use the ubiquitous excuse that "it pays the bills", except that it DOESN'T.

Still, the Fundraising Place pays me and the Food Place is interesting and I love everyone at the Health Place, so it could be much worse. I'm happy to be doing more or less what I want, and it means I don't spend my days sitting around in my pyjamas eating chocolate all day any more, so at least I'm saving money there (good chocolate is expensive, you guys).

I'm actually really happy right now. Desks and lack of stable income aside, things are going well. I'm trying new things and going out and listening to the new Alkaline Trio album and spending time with great friends, and I have enough freelance work to feel a little better about the lack of a salary.*

I'm especially happy about my house.

Hello house!

But while it is a magical and mysterious house that provides us with drinks and fancy dress costumes, I'm mainly happy about the people who live in it. I talk about them so much that people probably assume we're some sort of cult. But seriously, given the horrendous experiences lots of people seem to have with digs life, from fights about the washing machine to never speaking to friends again, I really seem to have lucked out.

Maybe I didn't use up my share of magic on my year in York, since I seem to have ended up with a house full of really wonderful, like-minded people. At a time when I was still pretty run down and antisocial, I got to make a whole group of awesome new friends without even having to put in any effort, and it was probably the best thing that could have happened to me just then. Everyone cooks great food, and we have serious conversations about politics and feminism, and silly conversations when the security company calls.

I am very lucky.

I've also been Going Out and Doing Things! Admittedly, I have spent the past two Friday nights in my pyjamas, reading children's books,** but at other times I've gone to parties and the theatre and a film festival and even a book launch, which made me feel immensely classy and grown up (although this effect was somewhat cancelled out by how excited I was about free canapés and wine).

All dressed up for a Year 2000 party, with some housemates plus one visiting Rowan (my erstwhile travel companion).

The book launch was awesome, because it was for Lauren Beukes's new book, The Shining Girls. She wrote of one of my favourite books, Zoo City, and it was great to meet her and hear her speak. At one stage, the guy interviewing her dismissed the idea that The Shining Girls could be labelled "a feminist book", as if this was some sort of grave insult, and she speed with which she corrected him was truly fantastic. Four for you, Lauren Beukes. You go, Lauren Beukes.

And she likes my hair!

So I have an exciting new book to read, and I also have exciting new music to listen to. I don't usually get very excited about music, because that would leave me with less time to get excited about Cabin Pressure, but the new Alkaline Trio album is super and makes me want to dance and cry, often at the same time, so it's a bit like being drunk. Just cheaper in the long run.

This song may be a little cheesy, but it has a lovely humanist message.

"Get right with God before it's time"
I hear the telephone works both ways
Think You could make a little effort some day?
I've got an awful lot going on with the things that I can see
...
It's only love that keeps us here
And this food and these drinks, they're all poison
And life is death, so die well with some good distractions
At the end, there is only love

I'm grateful to have so many very good distractions to help me make the most of this one life I have. And yes, I'm going to keep saying soppy stuff like this all the goddamn time, because I look at my photos from York and the people in my life now, and I'm so happy that I almost want to call it "blessed".

Oh tissue box, you get me.

Now here is a picture of a cat.

Happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr purr purr.

*I met a guy the other night who tried to mansplain to me about how to do freelancing because he's been doing it for like a month longer than me. His insight was invaluable.
**The Dark is Rising series is so much scarier than I remembered. Also more racist.