fandom snowflake challenge 2019 - day one

("January 1–15" is a little optimistic, because here it is January 2 and I'll be more or less off the grid this weekend, but I'll do what I can.)

Day 1

In your own space, talk about your Happy Place—the things that give you joy, calm you, or keep you sane. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Maybe the fact that I'm thinking so hard about how to answer this question is a little bit diagnostic.

Things that give me joy: Music. Knitting. My two-year-old, 98% of the time. (When he's being a brat, especially when he's doing so deliberately, I am not joyful. It's all age-appropriate boundary testing, but man do I not like it/him/myself when that's the place we're in.)

Things that calm me: Music, sure. Knitting, sure. My two-year-old, at snuggly times. (Hugging him can make the knot in my neck let go a little bit. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that his head on my shoulder might lower my blood pressure.) Coffee; it doesn't even have to be good coffee. Wine.

Things that keep me sane: Um.

So nu, it's been a tough couple of years for me. In addition to the raging trash fire that is our current administration, which has generally been making it a tough couple of years for everyone in the world (whether they know and admit it or not), I had a baby two weeks after the last presidential election; then when he was almost 10 months old my mom had a stroke. She survived and is actually recovering very well, given the odds, but she's still not the same as she was and never will be again. So the kid is two and I've basically had a new and different mom for 15 months and counting. I probably do need some more conscious Happy Place in my life. (I did buy a 20-lb weighted blanket a couple-few months ago, and I like it very much.)

fandom snowflake challenge 2019 - day two

Day 2

Rec at least three fanworks that you didn’t create. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

1. For some reason, just now I can't get a vid from, whoo, the late 1990s or so out of my head. And I've never been a vidder, so I don't remember who made it (but I'd love it if you told me so I could credit appropriately): "Standing Outside the Fire," the Garth Brooks song, and - maybe a Star Wars vid or maybe multifandom, now that I think about it. My researches have not turned it up nor any discussion of it. [eta: Fanlore suggests it was by dkwilliams, which rings a bell, but it doesn't turn up on her AO3 page, her vid site, or her YouTube channel; maybe it only exists on that AWS compilation?] But there is a bit where the lyric of the refrain goes with a clip of the duel between Luke and Vader in the throne room at the end of Return of the Jedi, and even back in (what I believe were) the Days of Vidding Using Two or More VCRs, Not Like You Can Do Now with All Digital Everything, the timing of the beats with the lightsabers meeting was perfect. I've always admired that.
   
2. With the Return of Everyone from Tumblr I've seen resonant around lately for the first time in a wee while, which has reminded me of her Harry Potter story Transfigurations (and what was generally an easier—though not necessarily happier, I guess?—time in my life for a whole variety of reasons). I haven't read that story in yonks, but I loved it very much at the time she was writing it.
   
3. A former co-worker made a quilt for my kid that has foxes (for me) on one side and musical notes (for Himself, because Reasons, but also for both of us) on the other and the quilting stitches are in circles and other shapes reminiscent of Circular Gallifreyan and it just generally makes me very, very happy.