It would be easy for this blog to get a little groundhog day now I don’t update as often. I usually come back when I need to talk, or to work something out – and those things don’t tend to be super happy, positive aspects of my life. This is fine – I’m not a great fan of the idea that positive thinking solves all things, both because it’s quite frankly bullshit, and because I’m suspicious that it’s mostly a convenient way to silence people with mental health problems and other oppressed groups. So I’ll keep ranting; however, even when I feel like crap, not everything in my life reflects that. In honour of this, here are some recent things that were decidedly uncrap.
I have been married to A for 3 years now, and we’ve been together for 6. This is by far my longest relationship, and I’m still totally besotted with her. For our third anniversary, we stayed in a youth hostel in Northumberland, where I took a billionty photos of Bamburgh Castle…
…and walked to the Scottish border, because these things must be done.
It wasn’t exactly Trump’s wall. The Scots have much more sense than that.
My business is doing really well. I finally made the equivalent of full time minimum wage over the last tax year, which felt like quite an achievement for someone who has never been able to work full time. I’ve also never managed to cope with being employed by a company for any length of time, whereas I’m now half way through my fourth year of self employment. It really helps to be in charge of my own schedule.
I graduated from my Master of Research in December, having managed to complete two consecutive full time postgraduate degrees alongside my business. They were both really challenging, both academically and practically, but I’m now set up with all the qualifications and skills for what I want to do next. Which is…
…a PhD, starting (fingers crossed) this September! An academic who was in the top 3 of my geek-heroes list has agreed to supervise me, I’ve submitted all the paperwork, and now am just waiting for it to all be official so I can actually talk about it without feeling like I’m jinxing it.
At Christmas I got a new camera, which I was very excited about. My wife has finally got me interested in birds – she’s been trying to make this happen for years, since my most typically autistic ‘special interest’ is butterflies, which are very seasonal, leaving me without an obsession I can actually interact with during the winter. So we’ve been on several trips to the coast to find interesting birds, like these LAPWINGS OMG (my brain keeps insisting on calling them waxwings, which they are not. Waxwings are something else entirely. Getting two nouns consistently mixed up is a common problem for me – but at least this one is inconsequential, whereas things are trickier with that one client I keep accidentally referring to as Elaine).
Lapwings, anyway.
Also here is a very nice robin, just because.
Both taken with a telephoto lens, the proper focusing of which has required a lot of practice, with much swearing.
I am sure I will return with more depression and pretty photos soon!
Giant Fossilized Armadillo 
Are you taking Amitriptyline? Getting words muddled is a common side effect. I’ve decided to put up with it as the benefits well outweigh the side effects. My husband decided to try an alternative after finding it impossible to get his two nephews names untangled. He gave up when they proved not nearly as good and when his younger brother gave him two more nephews to remember the names of
Oops! I am, but I’m only on 10mg/day, and I’ve mixed words up my whole life anyway, so think it’s more likely to be an autism thing for me. It’s a pretty common experience for people on the spectrum, and also in female members of my family 😉