Getting to know each other #3 / Year end

Thank you PlainT (Queering the Nerd) for choosing me for the chain-style Very Inspiring Blog Award!

I’m going to move it along by selecting a bunch of blogs I’ve been enjoying lately.  If I chose your blog, and you’d like to make a post following all the rules of the award, they can be found in PlainT’s post, here:
The rules of this award are…

Then I’m going to write a few facts about myself, sort of in the vein of a year end summary.  I made a similar post last year; it is here:
This year felt different… in a good way

These community-driven awards are super important because it’s a chance for blog writers to connect with different blogs they might not know about yet.  I enjoy seeking out new blogs regularly, and I find myself feeling invested in the lives of other blog writers.  Sometimes I get bummed when a blog starts off really strong and then disappears!  Here’s to the coming year, and strengthening this online community through mutual support and inspired blog writing!

A few blogs to check out (some are mainstays, some are more sporadically written than others, some are brand new)!

John’s Thoughts
Changing Faces
Tea With Ess
Gender Drift
Casbalog
Queer Asterisk
Tangled Web
ftmfml
Dawn to Don
Musical Transparent
A Yellow Crayon
2 Women to 2 Men

Next up, here are some things about me / some things I did and felt this year:

– Overall, it was a pretty rough year for me.  I continued to settle into a new and improved place with hormone therapy and talk therapy, but I’m finding I still have a LONG way to go until I really am where I see myself.  I want to be out as non-binary in all areas of my life.  I want to go by a different name.  I want all the people who know me to use male pronouns in reference to me, not just most of the people…  I might want top surgery…

– I felt a growing closeness with my partner, newer levels of comfort and ease, which is great.  At the same time, she kinda had to put up with a lot from me.  Lots of bouts of crying.  Lots of insecurity-fueled jags.  I had a rough summer.  And fall.  And just in general, lately…

– We celebrated our having-gotten-married (this occurred in November 2013) over the summer with friends and family!

– We went on some fun trips.  To Massachusetts and Maine, to Toronto, To Philadelphia for the Philly Trans-Health Conference.

– We attended a foraging workshop with some friends, which was totally fun!  We learned about edible plants you can find in our region, and how to prepare them into meal-like food items, over an open fire in the middle of the woods.  We did that – everyone helped cook this food we’d found, and then we all ate it!

– Outdoors times were probably some of my favorite times this year.  Just going for a hike or going to a lake.  My partner and I got snowshoes recently, so we can keep getting out there, even throughout the winter.

– My pet rabbit passed away, and my co-worker retired.  These have both felt like HUGE losses.  Work has been tough and more drama-ful than need be, lately.

– I worked on 3 submissions for anthologies this year!  One is already published, and two have been accepted and are in the works, the editing stages…  This feels AWESOME!

– I got involved in a local group that is putting a new radio station out into the airwaves.  Currently I’m helping out a lot with their facebook page, and within the coming year, I will be a weekly radio DJ!

That was, more or less, what 2014 looked like for me.