When I signed up for this Blog Hop thing, I wasn’t really even thinking about what I was going to do here. Those of you who know me, I’ll wait a moment so you can stop laughing hysterically at the familiarity of that statement.

While we wait, here’s a picture of Oolong, a bunny known for balancing waffles and pancakes on his head.

And I sit here typing, I still have no fucking clue. It’s a New Year for the Time Lords out there but there are some of us who really only feel the New Year is going to be hitting on February 10th. I will bid a farewell to the Year of the Dragon…my birth year…and joyously welcome the Snake as it comes in.

I’m okay with the Snake coming in. The Dragon has been… fucking intense and a roller coaster ride. You know…very Dragon like.

Employment wise, I was laid off by a company that I’m actually quite okay with leaving. I’ve taken some time to recover from the PTSD of that place and in that time, wrote three books. Three? Going on four. I’ve met and friended people I’ve read and I’ve in turn been friended by people who’ve read me. I finally got to face a friend whom I’ve known for a long time and say… Fuck, you rock… in person.

Lisa… you rock.

Even though you did actually buy that shitty wine and made me taste it.

And a warm love and shout out to my Yaoi Minions. God THANK YOU for the coffee. I am missing an Dong Bang Bunneh Minion here. Swallowtt love, get in the picture!

This year, I’ve done quite a bit of planet-hopping…Hawai’i, San Francisco, Albuquerque and numerous trips up to Los Angeles. I’ve seen JYJ and Big Bang in concert and have trolled a few friends along the way. There’s been some heartbreak with the cat’s illness and worry over him bouncing back. He’s had no such worries as he’s gained back all his weight and just came by to suck the ben-gay off my fingers.

I survived the hardest trust-someone-else event of my life, getting a tattoo by the renowned Inkslinger, Rob Benavides without having a DAMNED say about the art. With my intense control issues, this was a free-fall into Hell that Dante couldn’t even begin to imagine but that sliver of time-space when Rob asked jokingly; “When are you going to let me put my art on you?” had to be grabbed.

Because sometimes, you just fucking gotta test your wings.

This year, I’ve been called both a bitch and a saint. Both pilloried for my turn of phrase and praised for my writing. I’ve made my mother cry when I hugged her and I panicked, thinking I’d broken her. She’s LIKE fucking 95 pounds. I am a T-Rex to her sparrow. First thought, great. Now I’ve broken her but no, she was crying because I told her I loved her and I wanted her to have a Happy Birthday before I drove to the airport to leave.

I regret NOTHING.

I’ve cried over news stories — too numerous and sad to recount — and cried over the happy ones too.

I do not regret MY TEARS.

A lot of my time is spent rebooting my neurotic Old Man Dog who licks the air and gets into a leg-thumping scratch fest because he’s senile and he can’t get out of a loop. I’ve drank a lot of coffee… LOTS… and thrown away more words that I’ve written then kept. I’ve been a part of dinners with other writers and have laughed so hard we nearly peed ourselves and tried to be so very well behaved when the restaurant mistakenly put a family next to us. That by the way was blown out the window when the mother screeched “No! THAT IS CACA!”. After that, I don’t think it mattered any more what we said.

“Come, come, come.  Without a monster or two it’s not a quest, merely a gaggle of friends wandering about.” I thought on these words and said, yep they are true. Sometimes the best Hunts are looking for monsters we’ll never catch or if we do catch sight of one, we are in a stupor in awe of the magnificence.

I was served coffee by a young pregnant woman named Estrella at GRL. I hope she and the baby who is surely done cooking are doing well. I wonder what she had. And I hope she knows we all stuffed that tip jar of hers with love and a dedication of rabbits on Viagra not just because she handed me over the brew of the Gods at five in the fucking morning but because she wanted to buy a really good stroller for her first baby. She made the stroller money on the first day of GRL and Estrella, I’m glad you found us all funny and sweet. We thought the same of you.

To Robert the newbie Bellhop at the Long Beach Yaoi Con hotel, I hope you found the courage to cosplay the superhero you wanted to at the comic book festival. You said you would and that everyone at Yaoi Con gave you the fortitude to say…I am welcome here. Thank YOU for coming upstairs to the dealing room to tell me this. Even if it made Mary Calmes said… “God you are so local.” I’m still not sure what that means. *grins* But still… you were…shining. You said you felt for the first time that “These are my people. There is no judging” It was all just a celebration of self. And you felt… filled with it.

Thank you for sharing that with me.

So, for this blog post… that’s kind of what I’d like to remind all of you. Celebrate the Self. In this year of the Snake, rejoice in the odd times and the good. Remember that somewhere, you are always welcome…especially in this collective of oddities we call a genre or fandom.

You must always remember. you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.  — Christopher Robin to Pooh

When all else fails, go to the Pooh for the Pooh shall set you free. Or you shall step in it at three dark-thirty in the morning on the way to the bathroom and the damned dog will have NO guilt about it because you can’t quite prove it was him.

Since this is a blog hop, I invite you to go peek in on a few friends of mine. Some of them will have posts up Next Wednesday for this Next Big Blog Hop Happy Family Polka Dot thing. Go visit. Have a cup of tea.

Taggin’ My Peeps:

Anne Barwell: http://annebarwell.wordpress.com/

Lou Sylvre: http://sylvre.com/

Shira Anthony: http://www.shiraanthony.com/

EM Lynley: http://www.emlynley.com/blog/2012/12/the-next-big-thing-for-em-lynley/

Aundrea Singer: http://taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com/

The Novel Approach: http://thenovelapproach.wordpress.com/

Pants Off Reviews: http://pantsoffreviews.blogspot.com/

This is Ursula Vernon’s Studio Gallery. Just because she so damned awesome: http://www.redwombatstudio.com/