I was just thinking about you two the other day. Glad to see you’re still going strong!
Oh. June 11, 2016 made 10 years of marriage for Sr. Weasel and myself.
We have much to celebrate. We survived a couple harrowing years, bought a doublewide in our home state of Michigan not far from his Dad and step-Mom, we now both have jobs we truly enjoy (he got his Ph.D. in clinical psychology last year after seven grueling years and left academia to join a group psychology practice, best decision of his life. Short of marrying me, of course.) Now he is making (relative) bank, I am splitting my time between writing grants for a nonprofit DV and sexual assault organization with a mission close to my heart, and working on becoming a professional fiction writer. I am managing the household and we are saving for adoption. We are building a solid network of social support comprised of both family and friends… something we lacked for years as nomadic grad students.
This year has been not without its challenges (I was hospitalized twice and dealing with some medical stuff) but after a very rough stretch we finally have ‘‘us’’ back, and we would take this year over 2014 any day.
Congratulations. We mark 22 years this week ourselves.
Seems to be the time !
Sunday was our 6th Anniversary. My Dearly Beloved and I ( improbably, because of the distance and location of our wedding ) wound up sitting in the church where we got married on the day and at the time of our wedding. 
I’m a darned lucky fellah.
Aww. June does seem to be a big wedding month. I had friends get married on the 8th this year and another one of our friends is on the 10th.
Our official date is in late April, when we registered at the Pathum Wan District Office in Bangkok, and as far as the Thai and US governments are concerned, that’s when we were married. But families here never recognize that, so even though we were both in our 30s, we had to wait for the family ceremony to be held to be recognized by them. My mother-in-law picked the June date by consulting her regular fortune teller. The same as with Thais everywhere, the June date is the one we count for our marriage. We only use the April date for official documents.
OK, looking at those photos, it’s blatantly obvious that you are a fake internet person. The wedding photo clearly features a woman the same age as the woman in the later one. The guy is only a year or two older in the second photo than the first. You gotta be WAY more convincing with the Photoshopping than that to get by me!
(Seriously: yay and congrats!! I know it’s been a rough time for you over the years).
Wait…that’s the SAME COUPLE??
:eek:
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You flatter me. I’ll take it.
It’s all him, really. Good lighting for me, but he still looks basically 20 years old. We went to the salon this weekend, and the lady talked to him like he was there to get a graduation haircut or something. I joke it’s only a matter of time before people start giving me side-eye for robbing the cradle… but he is, in fact, two months older than I am. And if you look really close he has like three or four grey hairs now.
It’s cute and funny right up until his clients meet him and say, ''Uh… you’re my doctor?" He’s used to it by now. And since most of his clients are kids, I think it kind of helps.
On June 5 which would have been the 67th (or 68th?) anniversary of my grandparents - my grandma passed away in December - I married my beloved. The mumpers know him as RT. Yesterday we moved into our new house. It’s been quite a month so far. 
I just finished my 20th year of teaching. I’m celebrating by taking the next couple of months off. 
It’s July 1 over here now, and thus begins my final month in Thailand. When I fly out of here on August 1, I will have spent precisely 22 years, 6 months, 2 weeks and 1 day in the Greater Bangkok area. That and my two years up North in the 1980s gives me almost a quarter of a century in Thailand under my belt.
I’ll probably be posting less often in the coming weeks as we rush to put our affairs in order, plus we’ll be at Angkor Wat in Cambodia for a few days. I’ll disappear completely for a few weeks come August until I can get myself set up in Honolulu to some extent. But I’ll still be around, as I have already extended both my Membership and my Custom Title another couple of years, to get that out of the way and not have to be bothered with keeping up on it.
A new chapter will soon begin.
Beginning with a new username. 
Well, I don’t want too many changes all at once. Everything in moderation, ya know.
Sam, always enjoyed your posts, and I’m looking forward to your new perspective
I’m still voting for Maui Wowie or Hawai’i Harry.
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It’s been a nerve-wracking 7 weeks since the offer letter but the proverbial ink (mostly digital ink) is now on the contract. The Story of Q: A GenderQueer Tale, a 97,000 word genderqueer coming-out and coming-of-age memoir, shall be published by Ellora’s Cave.
It will be available in digital format first, on Ellora’s Cave’s own website, on Amazon, theoretically on ARe*, and on Kobo Books, and Barnes & Noble, and Apple.
- ARe is a web site devoted to erotica titles, which makes sense for Ellora’s Cave’s traditional oeuvre, but less so for THE STORY OF Q. But if they want to carry it who am I to quarrel?
The book will also be available in physical form as a paperback book, something fundamentally important and viscerally appealing to my 20th-century experiences.
Ellora’s Cave is a publisher focused until recently on steamy erotic romances. However, as their front page explicitly states, they are “now accepting new genres”. I’m not 100% certain but I think my book will be printed under their new imprint “EC For Real”, insofar as that is the one designated for memoirs, although it might also come out under “EC for LGBTQ”, depending I suppose on whether that imprint is intended to incorporate LGBTQ nonfiction or will be focused on LGBTQ erotica and romance.
So they’re doing new things, and I, as a newbie author, am definitely going to be doing new things, and I’m quite looking forward to the experience.
I have already had a leisurely chatty conversation with the editor, Susan Edwards, who will be working hands-on with me to refine and polish the manuscript; she began our conversation by asking what my preferred pronouns are, and expressed warmth and enthusiasm for the project, stating that this is a wonderful time for a genderqueer memoir to be hitting the market.
Due to the economic challenges of the publishing market, Ellora’s Cave isn’t directly able to engage the services of a publicity engine to promote their authors’ books, so that will be up to me. I have no skills but I have my own personal publicity budget and an inclination to hire a professional publicist with it – perhaps more than one. (If you have experience with a publicist you think would be a good match for this project, please get in touch with me!).
What I do have is a talk, which I have already been taking on the road, and I will be attempting to get myself booked more often now that I have a book coming out.
If you have a book club, LGBTQ center, sociology class, feminist discussion group, etc etc and would like to have a guest speaker / presenter, give me a holler 
Oh, I hope you keep your current username, even if you’re not living there anymore.
On Monday, I was promoted from proposal writer to proposal manager.
Becoming a proposal manager has been my goal for the past 5.5 years – since I switched careers from technical writing to proposal writing. Not only is it more challenging work that I think I’ll enjoy/be good at, but when the time comes to leave my current company it will be much easier to find work, my earning potential has increased, and I can even consult after retirement if I want to. I’m about to turn 45, so it’s kind of perfect timing: I’m definitely ready for more responsibility, and there is also still plenty of time to get “good” at this job. Or, at least, to get better: I actually started managing a proposal three weeks ago (Monday is just when I got/accepted the internal offer and made it official).
It feels a little surreal to have finally accomplished this long-term goal, but also pretty damn good. My joy is only tempered by not being able to tell my mom about it: she died 8 months ago, and this is my first major life event without her.
Yay, promotions!!
Congrats, and good luck!