Yikes! Has is been that long? Really?

Wow - I can't believe it's been 6 weeks since I last posted. That's NOT normal for me.

Let's see, since my last post we've gone on a Star Trek cruise, my mother died and my father moved out.

Yes, it's been rather busy and losing my mother was a really awful experience. Just in case you really weren't sure??? CANCER IS FUCKED UP. Especially pancreatic cancer. I may not believe in a devil or the like, but if there ever was an evil presence on this planet - cancer is as close as it comes.

So now that things have settled down (and by settled down, I mean have been deafeningly quiet) I'm getting back into the swing of things.

After my mother's funeral and after the family all flew home, I was able to actually read a book and review it for Terilynn's Trek at Airlock Alpha. It was a welcome respite from the insanity of the mourning rituals.

I also got to finish a small fiction challenge over at Ad Astra Fan Fiction, called It Had Been a Day. The story was a response to a challenge about what a children's story in the universe of Star Trek might be like. I used the opportunity to build another scene where my created character, Cassidy Riker - the youngest Riker progeny - is four years old and gets a book from her "Grampa Picard." It ended up being more melancholy than I had originally intended it to be - namely because the Cassidy Riker character ends up defecting to a terrorist organization later on in her life. So the sweet child she is in this scene conflicts so greatly with the hardened woman she ends up in my series.

It felt good to write a little fan fiction. I needed the outlet and really haven't focused on writing anything for almost 6 months. I am hoping that I can concentrate a little more on writing again, because I find if I do, I somehow also "clear space" in my brain to concentrate on my real-life job as well...

I also attended my first Virtual Drinking Skeptically meeting in almost a month. I am really liking where these chats are heading. I still consider myself to be a complete noob to the skeptic "society" and I have much to learn about the different meetings, challenges and organizations that are affiliated with skeptics and this seems to be a very nice way to get introduced to a lot of it!

This Thanksgiving will be one of the most different for me in the past 20 years. It will be just me, The Husband and the doggies. And I must say, I am REALLY looking forward to it.

I wish you all the best if I don't post again before Thanksgiving. But knowing me - I probably will! See ya!