hermionesviolin | Entries tagged with people: church: thom g.

Thom and I both tested positive for covid last Thursday and have been isolating together at their place since last Friday. I got hit way harder than they did, symptoms-wise (possibly because they'd gotten their bivalent booster a week before and I hadn't gotten mine yet?), but we both got Paxlovid through the state, and today we took another sick day from work and finally felt well enough watch the second half of Season 2 of Ted Lasso (yes, I was so fatigued I had barely felt up to watching tv a lot of the time so far).

This afternoon, my excellent human tagged me in a Discord we're in and said:

I'm thinking of (eventually) putting up fan art in the entryway that represents the family. If you have fandoms you want represented, let me know. I also texted the kids.

Fandoms and/or specific fan art.

I've been depressed recently, so we had a low-key three-day weekend, because I didn't wanna do much in terms of Activities or Conversations (it's tired/low-energy depression, not so much sad depression).

Saying goodnight last night:

me: "Thanks for letting me be a blob this weekend."

my partner: "You're allowed to be a blob. _My_ blob."

me: "I'm the blorbo from your shows!"

Which meant I then Googled to explain (I had been trying to recall this Tweet, but the Daily Dot article is good -- and not by Aja, don't worry).

["_My_ blob," comes out of our habit of Thom saying "_my_ X" whenever I'm like, "I'm such an X," where X is something negative. Like, "Yeah, you are, and also you're mine, and I love you."]

How many nerd references can we include in one Discord conversation?

( The Matrix, Star Wars, British media, memes, and a touch of Star Trek )

We watched this episode on Friday.

( spoilers are excited for mythos )

Thom and I are cute and text each other variations on, "I'm in bed. I love you. ♥" when we go to bed. Last night this included (after we had each said it once):

( Read more... )

I then Tweeted:

TIL my partner doesn't remember _A Wrinkle in Time_ well enough to get references to it.

How important is it that I remedy this?

spooloflies replied:

Do you have a copy of the book on hand RIGHT NOW. Do you need me to send you the poorly-OCRed file as a stopgap.

My friends have some strong and consistent brands, and I love them for it :D

---

And yes, I did find a certain irony in this text exchange since we had recently watched that episode of Ted Lasso. (Googling to get the exact quote, I found this nice article --

meat_and_breath: please wait to read it? Since it spoils a bunch of Wrinkle.)

I have developed a (very legit) reputation on Thom's family Zooms as a person who is constantly looking stuff up, but I felt like I had leveled up tonight when I wasn't even on the Zoom and Thom messaged me:

We’re discussing when Hawaii became a state and Joanne said, “Where’s Elizabeth?"

Bob is the one of Thom's 4 siblings who makes the most effort to include/acknowledge me on these Zooms, and he has definitely made comments while I've been on a Zoom about how I'm probably looking something up, and Joanne maybe has as well, but to be explicitly acknowledged when I'm not there felt like a significant level up.

+

Also, at the end of the Zoom:

Bob: “Thom, say ‘hi’ to Colleen and Elizabeth."

Thom's mom will often ask after Colleen when she's not on, and will sometimes ask after the kids, but this is the first time anyone has said something like that when I've not been on a Zoom. (Admittedly, I've missed all of like 4 Zooms since I first started attending them.)

(Life is A Lot, but here, have a cute story.)

Context:

(1) At one point, Thom's friend Rachel said I was a medium-sized Elizabeth, which we have adopted and use variations on a lot.

(2) My coworker Norma asserts that every relationship has a heatwife and an icewife. I run too warm to be an icewife, but Thom runs very warm.

So, we had this conversation just before noon today:

me:

I'm gonna do a lunchtime bike ride. I wish you well with [stuff on their calendar for the next couple hours].

Thom:

Thanks. I wish you a pleasant ride in this heat.

me:

Thanks.

Upsides of being only the medium-heat wife.

Thom:

Medium-sized, medium-heat wife. 😘

me:

Exactly 😘

Thom:

Medium-sized, medium-heat, enormous-awesome wife.

One of the walls at the gym I climb at got reset a few weeks ago, and I'd climbed one of the new routes a couple times and found it challenging but in a good way.

thedeadparrot and I climbed last night and they had finally labeled that route, and it's a 5.10-. Since coming back from pandemic-induced break from climbing, I've mostly been climbing 5.8s and 5.9s, so that was exciting.

I then decided to try a 5.10- that D had climbed last time and which I had opted not to do, in part because she had struggled at the midpoint. (She's generally a stronger climber than I am.) I successfully did it \o/

There was one point (before where she had struggled) where she explained to me what the move was, and since that didn't seem doable to me, I tried my climbing brand of brute forcing it -- which almost worked (D said she thought it would have worked if I had leaned more) and did get me to a place where I could complete the move.

I told Thom about this after I got home, and she was like, "I'm shocked that you have a brand of solving climbing problems by being like, 'This is hard; what if I just hard harder?' " I was like, "You mean how I'm like, 'What if I can accomplish this thing by sheer force of will?'?"

I said something about how sometimes the move will be a complex and nuanced thing and I'm like, "But what if I brute force it?" and Thom was like, "I think you mean complex and subtle -- and subtlety is overrated." (We have a long-standing ~joke about how I am Not Subtle, to which I say that, "Subtlety is overrated.")

Thom: "Elizabeth is not a wizard; quick to anger but not subtle."
me: "I think we looked this up and 'subtle' means something different. But I don't remember what it means, and I respect the joke." (For anyone who cares, this is what it means.)

These two recent stories cover a lot of the bases of Us -- or maybe more accurately many of the bases of who my excellent human is? #Both

***

( dresses )

***

( queer )

I got my first shot today (Pfizer). Second dose May 10, so I'll have full immunity May 24.

I posted to FB:

I'm terrible at taking selfies, but I successfully have dose #1 of the Pfizer vaccine. 👍🏻💉

Thom commented:

I don’t know how long this will be true, but right now this is definitely my favorite selfie of you. ❤️

They've only been a little bit stressed about me not having gotten vaccinated yet -- but still a non-zero amount.

She also sent me a Tweet: THIS GIRL IS ON PFIZER!

(Yes, Thom's current pronouns are she/they/he, maybe in that order.)

She had taken this week off for her kids' school vacation week, so driving me into downtown Boston was easy (though she is on-record as being pretty solidly willing to drive me to get vaccinated, period, even on workdays).
My second appt is in 3 weeks, when she will be working. Later afternoon is better given her meeting schedule, so I scheduled a 5:00pm.

I got my vaccine at one of the mass vax sites at Hynes Convention Center. You can park at the Prudential Garage and get a parking voucher from the vaccination so you don't have to pay for parking. Our parking voucher explainer postcard had, on the back, "Vax + Shop: Show this postcard to receive exclusive offers from your favorite Prudential Center shops and restaurants," and we were mostly uninterested, but there is a "Buy 1, Get 1 Free" Coldstone, so after my second shot, we're gonna get Coldstone together while we wait out some of the rush hour traffic :)

We have a lot of anniversaries, so she texted me this morning:

Happy (one particular) anniversary, my love. I am so happy to have you in my life. ️❤

When I mentioned our impending anniversary to my friend Holly last night, she said: "It's appropriate that your relationship is an Aries -- breaking boundaries, just doing it, having a nice time, sex, dominance and submissiveness" 🥰🔥

A UCC church in Connecticut posted this set of churchy Valentines -- which I saw because our Associate Pastor shared it in our church's private FB group.

I tagged Thom in comments and said, "OMG, so many puns! 😂 Some of them are really terrible, but I'm genuinely delighted by a bunch of them."

Which led to this in private chat (I've added some annotations for the reader [in brackets]):

( Read more... )

Speaking of canceling Joss, I'd heard about Ray Fisher and Charisma Carpenter [Edit: Oh, and what Joss's ex-wife Kai Cole said], but today discovered "an entire horror story in a sentence" about Michelle Trachtenberg 😭

On the MLK Day holiday last night, Thom and Colleen watched a YouTube concert which I dipped in and out of.

Like, Rachael Sage was on the artist list -- leading to this from me in chat:

I mean, do I know any of Rachael Sage's songs other than "The Spirit We" off of her 1996 album _Morbid Romantic_? Maybe not. But when I was going through the list just now I recognized her name and had a college flashback.

Oh, also "Bruises Without Blue" from _Smashing the Serene_ (1998)? /me has been Googling to remind myself what songs of hers I actually know, obviously

and then today:

omg, Google reminded me of "Sistersong" (also from _Smashing the Serene_). Which I'm a little bit ashamed of, because that one is my *favorite.*.

I'm definitely also trying to remember who sent me MP3s of her songs when I was in college.

offbalance?

+

So, this is from the blurb for the concert:

“Move Forward Virtual Music Fest,” to raise money to safely relocate two historic Confederate Monuments from the Bastrop County Courthouse Lawn, in Bastrop, TX, will take place on Monday, Jan. 18th (MLK Day ’21) at 6:30pm CT.
HOW TO GIVE:
By online donation: https://www.bastropconfederatemonumentrelocationfund.org/

And it was mostly music, but this white dude who does The Daily Stoic podcast talked for, I kid you not, 15 minutes (well, including the below-mentioned second video). I had him muted almost his entire time.

Thom:

"Do I still appreciate German culture and my German family? Sure." JESUS FUCKING CHRIST

MY GOD. HE FINISHED AND THEN THERE'S ANOTHER PRE-RECORDED VIDEO FROM THE SAME DUDE‽‽‽‽

I HOPE HE GAVE THEM A FUCKTON OF MONEY

me:

> Grace Pettis
> This is Ryan Holiday, best-selling author and Bastrop local, who has already given $10K to the cause.

Thom:

FINE

Still wanna claw out my ears.

Hell hath no torment like a White Man with a Mission

"Our norms are collapsing." I can't even....

me:

I mean, lbr, I'm a little dubious about this whole project to "ensure that the history these two monuments represent is preserved" (to quote from the donation website). Like, just bring them down and grind them into dust. No one needs this to be preserved.

Thom:

I mean, there's an argument for keeping things in a museum, but yeah, what value do these monuments even have that a history book or museum plaque can't?

( click to read us getting increasingly upset about 'preserving' Confederate monuments )

+

Some of the music was good, though?

Grace Pettis' "White Noise" led me to say in chat:

"What have you done? Where is your brother?" I am here for the subtle biblical references in this song. (Among other things. This is maybe my favorite song of the night?)

I also appreciate this:
> MPress Records recording artist Grace Pettis has released a powerful new single, "White Noise". 100% of the proceeds will be donated to Color Of Change, which "leads campaigns that build real power for Black communities" (including their current fight for justice for Breonna Taylor).
-https://www.pastemagazine.com/noisetrade/music/gracepettis/white-noise

(Yes, it was probably my favorite, even though The Chicks showed their "March March" music video.)

Not all the songs were Issue songs, which was fine, but of the ones that were, I vastly preferred the ones that didn't feel blandly, "Love, be nice to each other, we're all the same, maybe some bonus patriotism."

+

Thom last night:

I appreciate that a bunch of the men needed to bloviate and Jackie Venson is like, "Great cause. Gonna play you some songs."

And then Thom in group chat today:

Watching Nobody’s Girl videos, then listening to Jackie Venson, from last night’s show.

I appreciate that BettySoo’s entire consistent aesthetic in this video seems to be “Fuck your beauty standards; I could not be bothered to brush my hair."

Okay, I saw maybe one or two exceptions? But there are definitely multiple shots of her “dressed up” with (intentionally?) unkempt hair.

I also appreciate that this is clearly a pandemic video, including appearances by pets, projects, and at least one partner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDNXzeUapeE

The song is kinda meh, musically, and I did not do a good job following the lyrics.

Liking “Waterline” a lot better (not that “Tiger” was _bad_, exactly): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDvSW81rYGQ

I prefer the acoustic version of this (link below) to the one on the album, but that surprises maybe nobody: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48zglqwnjB0

In straight couples, which one of you is the small boulder and which one is the large boulder the size of a small boulder? -blgtylr

[meme reference]

me: We're not a straight couple, but ( feel free to drop your guesses in comments before reading our conversation )

Thom and I both took last Friday off from work to spend time together before their surgery and finished watching S4 of She-Ra.

They mouthe/bounce along to the theme song and also delight in the magical girl transformation sequence, so I referred to them as my adorable lesbian a bunch.

In a recent conversation about their gender, Thom said:

I’m cool with “confused she/they/he bearded genderqueer lesbian” for the time being.

Also, thanks to a transcript site for making going back and writing up notes on these episodes easier (though some of the episodes are incomplete, so I still did a bunch of rewatching even after I thought to search for transcripts).

( episodes 4.04-4.13 )

I have not read this book (yet), but Thom messaged me last night:

Have you read _This Is How You Lose The Time War_?

I am enjoying this a lot, and not just because it frequently makes me think of you.

Mostly not in the specifics — just in the depth of the sentiment.

They sent me some excerpts, most of which had sort of in-jokey connections to us, and said:

We’ve been married for ~2 weeks, dating for ~7 months, not-dating for ~19 months, and friends for, what, ~2.5 years? And we have so many in-jokes that I can find you almost anywhere. ❤️

Reader, I melted.

[Also, pedantically, it's been ~19 months since we started not-dating, but because we got to level up to actual-dating after 12 months, it's a little misleading to say "we've been not-dating for ~19 months."]

***

Lunchtime today:

Thom:

God, this book is so romantic.

And I’m going to stop sending you snippets, because I don’t want to spoil this any more than I might already have. (I don’t think I have, but I want to be extra careful from here to the end.)

I’m likely to keep highlighting to share with you once you’ve read it.

I’m low key tempted to ask you to read it on a day when we’re together, so I can talk about every chapter with you as you read.

JFC, I’ve come close to crying at the end of, like, over half the last few chapters.

Highs and lows and such deep sentiment.

me:

I mean, you're also under a lot of stress and your body might want an excuse to cry...

(Which I do not say to minimize the intensity of the emotion of the book -- #BothAnd.)

Thom:

Oh, yeah. Definitely also a thought I had. It is impossible to separate our experience of art from our experience of reality.

My love for this book is a product of my stress, of my love for you and for Colleen, of my umbilical hernia, and of three episodes of _Ted Lasso_. (Thanks, mediocre and sentimental cishet white guy.)

But also, the book is objectively excellent.

As is likely any book that includes in the acknowledgments, “Warm thanks, too, to Felicity Maxwell, for her generous expertise on Bess of Hardwick.”

Current Music: "i think of your letters as love letters..."

In chat this morning:

me:

The full list of Yuletide requests is up (https://yuletide-admin.dreamwidth.org/80845.html), and god I love Yuletide.

Thom:

/me is too lazy/distracted to grab their phone for a 🎄 react

me:

The spreadsheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VLDG5KUeoF6ocJRR4s5WkL3uFZpz3L2d5Fjj3o8gbbw/edit#gid=2015464765) has fandoms in alphabetical order and look at the fucking prompt for "14th Century CE Religious Women RPF"

For your reference: ( Julian of Norwich [& or /] Margery Kempe )

***

The Arthurian Mythology requests are also So Good. [In the remainder of this my post, AO3 usernames link to full letters, but prompts are c&p'ed from the spreadsheet.]

( pegging, femdom... )

likeadeuce

"My (25M) subs (22M, 28M, 28M) have unionized"

So I cracked a joke about how Arthur feels when his knights make alliances against him, related to the ""my subs have unionized"" post (see link below for the meme), and I just had to go with it. Any version of the myth, or a modern AU, or what have you. Literal D/s relationships, or literal labor unions with lists of demands, not necessary but certainly a possibility. Go wild, or go porny, or go absurd, or go to space; include Guinevere or your favorite obscure knight (I picked three off the nominated characters list, but don't feel bound to any particular character configurations or pairings.

Here's a link to the meme:
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/my-subs-have-unionized

I made a d/S us joke about this last one, and Thom said:

I mean, I'm also here for a gen fanfic in which the KotRT unionize for, I dunno, health insurance, PTO, and a more equitable distribution of quest assignments.

It's so adorably anachronistic. I mean, not that people didn't care about their working conditions, but applying a modern framework of labor relations to a feudal system sounds adorbs.

In chat this morning:

Thom:

Also, I have this casual iPhone game I’ve been playing a few minutes a day, and it has a story, which is that Lily leaves her accounting job and her narcissistic ex-boyfriend when she inherits her aunt’s estate. The game is ostensibly about fixing up the estate, which has fallen into disrepair.

I have reached a point where the roof breaks, so she calls a local carpenter to fix it (by adding a roof deck), and then her ex shows up. In this scene, the hot carpenter (in the orange overalls) has just said, about the ex, “Do you want me to get rid of him? I’ve got muscles and I know how to use them.” 😍

[link to image]

Needless to say, I’m totally shipping Lily and Regina.

/me is super disappointed to discover zero Lily’s Garden fics on AO3

Is this maybe the first time in a long time that I’ve considered writing fanfic? Yes. Yes, it is.

I discovered this game because Sarah discovered their advertisements, which detail the soap-opera–like life Lily lived before inheriting the estates. E.g., Blaine cheated on her with her mom, and maybe also one of her other ex-boyfriends.

Lily's Garden ADS | Timeline Version 2 | All Ads in Order

And honestly, if I were the game company marketing department, I would maybe suggest the writers actually write some fic under pseudonyms and post it on AO3.

me:

Yuletide nominations have closed, tragically, or I would recommend that you nominate it.

Thom:

Ooooh. That would have been great. Maybe next year.

me:

/me is maybe gonna write herself a note to remind you next year

Thom:

/me is zero percent surprised

in group chat just now:

Thom:

When I ran standup on Tuesday because [coworker] was sick, it did not occur to me that it might be a long time before I have another chance to end the meeting by saying, “Thundercats ho!"

And now I’m a little sad.

me:

You are definitely a person. Who apparently I have chosen and am committed to 😂

Thom:

You’re saying that what I should say instead is “For the honor of Grayskull”? That’s fair. I agree.

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burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

when faced with my demons I clothe them and feed them

Entries tagged with people: church: thom g.

covid / Ted Lasso

god, my nerdiest of girlfriends 😍

the blo(r)b(o) from my shows

[nerd] deep cut

Ms. Marvel 1.03 "Destined"

"It's the story of a young girl's struggle with the burden of leadership..."

leveling up in Thom's family

medium-me

climbing 10s

my femme, abolitionist illegal fuckwife

vaccine #1

Happy one-year anniversary of officially getting to date my excellent human!

church nerds in love

"Move Forward" Virtual Music Fest - Relocating Confederate Monuments in Bastrop, TX

today, in #NerdsInLove:

[She-Ra] 4.04-4.13

This is How You Lose the Time War (get you someone who loves you like this)

[Yuletide 2020] 355/6073

[Lily's Garden] this is not a Yuletide promo post

lol, 80s nerd datefriend

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May 2025

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