Various Notes Regarding My Life

Tomorrow is May Day, which marks my annual struggle not to make jokes about tank parades. All of my co-workers were alive when the Soviet Union still existed, but none of them spent the May Days of the tender years of their childhood dropping dixie cups full of candy on their neighbors' porches and then going home to watch the five-o'clock-news coverage of the annual Worker's Day Parade in Moscow. I do not feel old, but there are moments when I do feel my age.

Meanwhile, last week my Friday started with a thrill, as the Words and Deeds preview cycle brought Matsu Takeko (Experienced) into view. See those trait lines? See? Those are direct references to "Stronger Than Steel" the story I wrote where she kills two opposing samurai and then runs like a half-mile with an arrow stuck in her ribs. I influenced a card design. *sniff* I'm so happy....I didn't know this until I read the preview on the AEG forum. I've had the W&D pdf forever, but I generally don't read a particular section unless I'm doing flavor text for it. That'll teach me, I guess.

(While writing "Legacies", a story in which Takeko narrowly escapes being rended limb from limb by the former Matsu Satomi, it occurred to me that I have written three fictions with her as a character and she's gotten beat up in every one. I think I owe her a fic where she has a candle-lit dinner with Kakita Hideo, followed by an intensely meaningful discussion of Akodo's Leadership.)

Also meanwhile, spring is in full cry here. Thus, I am suffering from pollen-induced sinus problems and sunshine-induced gardening urges. The first I am keeping in check with the aid of my neti pot. The second, I am afraid, has no cure.