And some rearranging of things at C’s place. I am moving in with C. He actually asked me at the beginning of the year and we agreed that it was better timing after Swancon. I actually didn’t realise just how much Swancon was going to take out of me. It’s taking so much longer than I thought it would to get the emotional and mental energy back up to tackle things, to get up to speed on publishing, to be capable of socialising and a bunch of other things too. So the moving thing. Not really what I have energy for. And, as they say, one of the most stressful things you do in life. Yay. But it’s getting there slowly (not really, I feel like I have moved hardly anything). Most of Twelfth Planet Press is down here and in one room, more like a warehouse than an office but able to function and run things. Why do I have so many other (personal) books? And stuff. I have a lot of stuff. Still, the one carload at a time thing is starting to make me cry. I have to get a mover for the large items of furniture anyway so I am starting to lean towards packing boxes and having them brought down at the same time. Now just to actually leverage space in C’s house for me. Too little storage!

So I have much work still to be done this weekend. I feel very behind on the Twelve Planets. And ASif! And I want to get some traction on Last Short Story. And now that I have sorted my next two interviews for Galactic Chat, I have reading to do in preparation of those. And And And. You know how it goes.

Friday night we were supposed to meet at my place and then head down to C’s. We ended up procrastinating such that we decided to go out for dinner with my parents’ first. They were going Italian (and not Chinese – I know!) and it was some place that they couldn’t give directions to meet them, we had to go with. I was almost expecting a secret knock or password on arrival. Dinner was lovely and it was nice to catch up with my parents. C has been sick all week so he was a bit quiet. We went back to their place for coffee and then just decided to sleep at my place and be done.

That meant heading down to C’s in two cars the next day. And getting up earlier than I would like on the weekend. But I grabbed me a lovely cup of coffee from my fave place and turned on the RTR Saturday jazz and totally enjoyed the drive down. I’ve been getting into RTR Radio finally. Just like how it took me lots of tries to like Triple J in the beginning, I’ve really struggled to connect with RTR. And then a couple of weekends ago, C had it on in his car and it was the Saturday morning Jazz and I loved it and have been pretty much tuned into them since.

And then I did this weird thing whilst C was out most of the mid day at rugby. I read. A lot. Of short stories. And I enjoyed it. I’ve actually done this for most of the weekend in preference to anything else, including television. It’s really really weird. And I’ve really enjoyed it. I found my first 5 story for the year – it made me cry. Mondy has already blogged it but the F&SF issue for March/April features a story called “The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu is one of my picks for the year. LOVED IT. Yay! I love loving reading shorts again. I’m also enjoying reading Engineering Infinity and an anthology with a climate change theme called Welcome to the Glasshouse.

Saturday night we hung out with C’s parents and tried a new place down in R’ham called Mash. I think it’s trying to be like Little Creatures.

Today we headed up to the Barrack St Jetty to have brunch with some old workmates of mine at a place called Sassy’s on the Swan. The breakfast was very good. And it was so so so good to hang out with G and A and their partners. I miss not working with them anymore. They help make the world make sense. Sooooo good to see them. And to have time to sit and idly eat breakfast on a Sunday morning.

And you’ll never guess what I spent the afternoon doing. Yup. Reading.

Very happy.