i don't storm, i sunshower

i am in texas for the week doing such fun things as "talking about money and politics and death" and "learning how to drive" and "getting splinters in really inconvenient places" and even "reading a book set in dallas while i'm in dallas" (more on that later). i have family here, i'm not just here for vibes. i like airplanes but, yknow, covid is a thing. i was maybe one of three people wearing a mask on that whole airplane.

finished "thud", the second-to-last city watch book i think, and it was good. scene near the end w vimes in the caves weirdly similar to eddie diaz in the well episode of 911. in terms of "i have to get back to my son and this will prevent me from dying underground". lol. i liked this book a lot i thought the plot really flowed and i felt really invested in the mystery. sally is great, i like her a lot and i like her weird little dynamic with angua too.

one of the other things i'm doing in texas is sewing! a good friend of mine had a baby, like, [does math] sixteen hours or so ago and my grandmother has a sewing machine so i am making a quilt for the baby. baby probably has a number of personalized fiber arts things already but she's gonna have MORE!!!

item a: the fifth elephant, the next installment in the city watch books. i liked it. plot twists came out of nowhere again (evil dwarf was transgender all along? okay...) but i enjoyed it more than the last book, it was interesting to see angua and carrot's relationship tested and to see more of sybil. and to see some more new pratchett worldbuilding. i mean not new but for a different place not explained as though everyone knows it already--discovering it through vimes' eyes, you know?

item b: im so fucking tired im drowning in obligations for choir a and choir c and the quartet and work and the internship and the eurovision blog and family and other friends. i went to see my friend's choir concert today and all i could think about the whole time was how exhausted i was. i spent half my day off on my couch watching the firefighter tv show and avoiding my other obligations and im STILL tired at the end. when does it get to be over does anybody know

in nicer news, i watched back some of eurovision 2024. (on the german archived livestream, for language practice and not giving the ebu the view count in equal measure.) ultimately i'm satisfied with the final result. the songs i enjoyed mostly placed well (estonia not dead last? how???), That Country didn't win, and... a song about the trans experience won. the joy on nemo's face during the announcement legitimately made me cry and settled something in me regarding my gender confusion. i don't know what i am right now, but i'm definitely not a cis woman? so that's something ruled out. like, i watched that performance and i thought, this is someone like me, these lyrics resonate with me, and their success is shared with me. go switzerland trans rights.

item 1: latest discworld book i finished. feet of clay is pretty good. i realized near the end that wow maybe i should have read this before going postal just because it's CLEARLY chronologically before the moist books at this point but i still enjoyed it nonetheless. angua continues to be neat. cheri is... less neat, i like pratchett's wider ideas about dwarves and gender but cheri herself is maybe not my fave. detritus, on the other hand? heart emoji.

item 2: i got a job, passed an audition, and started a hellish independent research/interview project! the job is part-time but my coworkers are all great (i can already tell that i fit in much better than i did at the preschool), it's a nonprofit/art museum space which is awesome--and like, ok, the whole space is the art. it's a museum about a local mosaicist who covered the inside and outside of the property. it looks eclectic but to me it's really calming to be in there. so [shrek the musical voice] things are looking up here in duloc! heh.

more on the research project from hell later. my one dreamwidth mutual, who has already asked for details, will get them dmed; once i know what the fuck shape this project is going to take i'll take to dreamwidth about it. that day is not today.